In accordance with the Joint Working Agreement a new Chair will be elected from Torbay Council’s Committee members.

The new Chair will invite nominations for a new Committee Vice-Chair in accordance with the Joint Working Agreement and a new Vice-Chair will be elected from Plymouth City Council’s Committee members.

The Committee agreed to appoint Councillor Alan Tyerman as Chair and Councillor Tom Briars-Delve as Vice Chair for the meeting.

No declarations of interests were made.

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2022.

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2022.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

To receive a presentation summarising the performance of the contract and facility for 2022/23 and its current status by the SWDWP contract team.

To receive a presentation from Mike Turner, MVV Managing Director summarising MVV’s business performance.

Ashleigh Sherrell (Contract Manager, SWDWP) provided an update and highlighted the following points for 2022/23:

a)    The Energy for Waste (EfW) facility had been fully operation for eight years;

b)    MVV’s overall 2022/23 service and performance was good, but there had been an increase in amount and range of performance deductions applied for failing to meet requirements, likely a result of improved monitoring regimes;

c)    There had been improved availability from the previous year by 3% with 93.8% availability, despite an increase in the number of unplanned outages;

d)    MVV had complied with planning and environmental permit conditions with five exceptions relating to exceedances of half hourly average in emissions;

e)    There had been four odour complaints, two of which had been attributed to site activities due to the roof vents being opens for safety reasons;

f)     MVV achieved 99.9% diversion from landfill, the target had been 97%;

g)    Carbon savings had exceeded expectations of 73,594 tCO²/year with 88,118 tCO²/year being achieved;

h)    The plant had had 93.8% availability (against a 91% target) with six unplanned shutdowns;

i)     There had been five exceedances of the environmental permit, all of which had been reported to the Environmental Agency, and appropriate action taken;

j)     There had been 54 performance failures relating to vehicle turn-around times, waste acceptance and ticket issuing, maintaining IT equipment, community area availability and others relating to the facility and its site boundaries;

k)    There had been an annual waste throughput of 261,020 (265,000 permitted);

l)     SWDWP was 4.5% below tonnage forecast and therefor the budget expenditure was 7.6% below forecast;

She added that for 2023/24:

m)  Due to plant efficiency across the years, MVV had requested SWDWP’s approval to increase capacity by 10ktp/a on permitted amount through consent variation applications, which was awaiting a decision from LPA, but the permit had been approved;

n)    An outage was conducted between 13 June and 4 July 2023 for extensive works such as grate re-surfacing and replacement of the IBA de-slaggers;

o)    There had been 12 Performance Failures for minor operational matters surrounding vehicle deliveries and waste acceptance;

p)    The SWDWP was 3.26% below forecasted tonnage at the time of the meeting for 2023/24;

q)    From April to September 2023, there had been two complaints, one enquiry, one meeting of the Incinerator Liaison Committee and two Consent Breaches.

In response to a question it was further explained:

r)    There had been a decline in the number of complaints received since opening, largely due to the work done to communicate with the local community and neighbours on planned outages etc

Mike Turner (Managing Director, MVV Environment Ltd) then added:

s)     Mostly minor defects had occurred, such as tube leaks, de-slagger issues and damage on the grate;

t)     Local IBA processing had resulted in an increasing of CO_2eq savings;

u)    An LED lighting upgrade had been undertaken;
 

v)    MVV remained committed to exploring district heating opportunities;

w)   There was an MVV development planned in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

To receive an update on community interface, communications and educational activities from Jane Ford and Jade Beavan, MVV Community Liaison Manager.

Jade Beavan (Community Liaison Manager, MVV) gave an update, highlighting:

a)    They had reinforced the waste hierarchy and supported delivery of Partner Councils’ key waste minimisation messages;

b)    Facilitated tours and careers Q&A sessions;

c)    Organised and attended local events;

d)    Had participated in waste education meetings and hosted SWDWP training events;

e)    The team were involved in a community tree nursery based at Poole Farm, seeing the life-cycle of thousands of native broadleaf trees that would be planted in Plymouth and South Devon as part of the Community Forest project;

                      i.        MVV had donated 6 1000 litre IBC units which allowed for sustainable water harvesting which would be used to support the infrastructure and day to day running of the Community Tree Nursery;

f)     In 2022/23 195.5 hours had been spent with schools, 186.5 hours had been spent on waste education and 72 hours had been spent with community groups;

g)    Attendance at the Devon County Show had been positive and engaging;

h)    Over 2000 people had attended 2023’s Open Day, increased from 350 in 2022, with the date for 2024 to be confirmed soon.

In response to questions it was explained:

i)     There had been some barriers in contacting the right person at different schools in order to engage with them, and the offer of adding information to an existing weekly mail-out to Plymouth schools was welcomed;

j)     Cost of transport had been a barrier for some schools, so educational sessions had been offered to take place at the schools themselves instead;

k)    Of the three areas, Plymouth and Devon were most engaged, although a lot of people didn’t know where their waste went, which was something they were trying to change;

l)     An invitation would be sent out to all Councillors across the 3 areas to attend an online briefing;

m)  Groups of professionals, including groups from local authorities, and Councillors had been invited to tour the facility;

n)    The offer of working together to get more press articles was welcomed, particular for inclusion in Torbay weekly.

The agree 17 October 2024 as the date of the next meeting, to be held at Council House, Plymouth.

The Committee agreed 17 October 2024 as the date of the next meeting, to be held at Council House, Plymouth.

The Committee agreed to pass a resolution under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Members will receive a presentation from Ashleigh Sherrell summarising the contract’s commercial performance and any issues faced for contract year 2022/23 and the partnership’s budget forecast and allocations for 2023/24.

Ashleigh Sherrell (Contract Manager, SWDWP) provided an update on the Commercial Contract Performance and Issues for 2022/23, as well as an update on the South Devon Waste Partnership Accounts for 2023/24.