Recycling and street cleansing call-in refused by Brent CE0

 The 'call-in' of Cabinet decisions by Labour backbenchers and opposition councillors is one of the few ways that the powerful Cabinet can be held to account. Opposition councillors called-in the decision on the award of the new recycling, waste collection and street cleansings to Veolia for further consideration LINK but this was refused by Carolyn Downs, the out-going CEO in this email:

As you are aware, in accordance with the Constitution the call-in request in respect of the Cabinet decision to award the Integrated Street Cleansing, Waste Collections and Winter Maintenance Services Contract has been sent to me to decide if its valid.  As required by the Constitution I have consulted with the council’s statutory Scrutiny Officer and the Monitoring Officer in considering this issue

 

One criterion for validity of a call-in request is as follows:

 

Have the reasons for calling in the decision already been discussed by the Scrutiny Committee?  If the reasons for calling in the decision have been discussed by the Scrutiny Committee prior to the decision being made the call-in will not be valid,

 

The Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee met on 15 December 2022 to consider and discuss a report called Redefining Local Services: Update on the Integrated Street Cleansing, Waste Collections and Winter Maintenance Services Contract Procurement.  This was the only substantive item on the agenda for the meeting which lasted 3 hours and so there was extensive discussion by the committee in respect of procurement including the specification and the consultation undertaken, both the process and outcome.

 

The minutes of the meeting reflect specific discussion in relation to use of sacks for some recyclable materials and the “intelligence led” street cleaning service through which any ‘headers’ issues can be mitigated) with which the call-in request is particularly concerned.   Indeed, this is also reflected in the call-in request itself.  The minutes also reflect discussion of the consultation undertaken.

 

While Cabinet is not obliged to accept recommendations from Scrutiny Committee, it is worth noting that Cabinet did agree to investigate further the use of sacks and possible alternatives. 

 

The call-in request also refers to the structure of the procurement (whether the contract could have been split into smaller areas) which was not part of the Scrutiny Committee discussions.  However, there is no proposal for alternative action that could now be implemented put forward in the request.  This does not meet the requirement that a valid call-in request must:

 

• include the member’s suggested alternative proposals, action, or resolution of the matter

 

In view of the above, I am afraid I am not able to accept your request as a valid call-in.

 

 

Bid to call-in Waste, Recycling and Street Cleansing Cabinet contract award to Veolia

 

Editor: Veolia workers being included in party political tweet and lead member social media

 

A group of opposition councillors have submitted a request to call-in the recent Cabinet approval to award  the Waste, Recycling and Street Cleansing contract to Veolia. The request is in the name of councillors Georgiou, Lorber, Matin, Hirani and Maurice.

Please provide below an explanation as to why you are calling in the decision and if you are calling in all or part of the decision:

 

 

As a service based organisation, Brent Council should be putting residents’ needs and concerns at the forefront of all we do. This call-in is based on our belief that the views of residents have mostly been ignored throughout the tendering process and that the decision made by Cabinet will in fact lead to worsening outcomes for local people for this very important and valued service.

 

We believe the way that this process has been handled has always advantaged the current contractor. In order to increase competition and as a result a better service for our residents the Council should have considered splitting the contract into smaller areas, perhaps the Brent Connects areas, or grouping of wards, which might have resulted in more interest from contractors other than the current contractor.  

 

We are particularly concerned about two key aspects of the decision:

 

The use of sacks for the collection of some recyclable materials (paper and cardboard).

 

A move towards a so called ‘intelligence led’ street cleaning service.

 

Our view is that both changes were highlighted during the consultation period as being unpopular with local people and will in fact not work in practice.

 

During the trial period the size and sturdiness of the sacks to be used was questioned by residents. In the Scrutiny session on this item at the end of last year, numerous Councillors, who were also involved in the trial, highlighted this concern. A recommendation from the Committee, whilst being noted in the Decision, has effectively been ignored, as there is no clear indication that an alternative will be implemented.

 

On street cleaning, we have huge concerns about how a new ‘intelligence led’ approach will impact local roads in our wards. There is already a significant issue in our areas when it comes to upkeep and cleanliness of streets. As admitted by an Officer of the Council at the Scrutiny session last year, this new approach, “will not make the situation better.” If our purpose as an organisation is to improve the standard and quality of our area, it is evident that in fact this decision does not do this, therefore, an alternative needs to be found.

 

We are also specifically concerned about the reduction of Zone A ‘headers’ (side roads) from 50m to 20m. There are already significant issues on roads closest to High Roads and Town Centres. Our belief is that the reduction of this aspect of the service will both be incredibly detrimental to the residential roads close-by and in the long run costlier for the Council to deal with.

 

Please provide below an outline alternative course of action to the decision being called in.

We propose on sacks that the Council agree in full with the recommendations by the Scrutiny Committee that wheelie bins be provided where possible to residents who wish to have them, so as to avoid the possibility of sacks being misused, broken and lost. If necessary, by revising recycling collection routes.

 

To maintain the Zone A ‘headers’ (side roads) to at least 50m, as is the case in the current contract.

 

A review of the way service consultations are conducted so as to ensure they are proper, thorough, and rather than imposition of an already agreed to decision. This will give greater confidence to the residents that the Council are listening to their concerns and acting on them.

 

As suggested during the consultation process with residents, to increase the number of waste and recycling bins on local streets.

 

 

 

Newland Court concerns now filed as a formal complaint to Brent Council of alleged systemic discrimination

Overflowing bins alongside boarded up garages that the Council intends to remove and build on

Marc Etukudo's struggle to get Brent Council to deal with problems at Newland Court, Wembley Park, have now resulted in his concerns being treated as formal complaint against the Council.  Note that the Council's infill proposals to demolish garages and build mini-houses on the site also involve reducing the number of bins.

This is the complaint:

RECYCLING BINS

The first issue is about our recycling bins. Now Brent Council has a habit of administering proposals and supposedly having consultation with any or all the residents affected about the proposal which is totally untrue. Brent Council actually only consulted with a fraction or a small percentage of the residents affected and then released a result that does not reflect the true figures of residents that are against the consultation if they were actually involved.

No one that I have spoken to at Newland Court received any consultation letter regarding having a trial by making recycling pickups from weekly to fortnightly. The first I or other residents found out about this was on social media where other residents in Brent were also asking if anyone was consulted about the 2 week recycling pickup trial and many were dumbfounded about it. I called Brent Council to find out why and was told that we were sent consultation letters which is untrue.

 

Now since this 2 weekly recycling trial pickup our bins are not being emptied fortnightly and even sometimes monthly so that our recycling bins are always overflowing and of course fed up residents are now putting the recycling waste into the residual waste which defeats the object of asking us to recycle our rubbish. When the residual waste is being emptied the bin men will sometimes take out only the bins in bags and leave the residual bins still half full. I have attached pictures for you to see and I hope you will address this issue.  

PARKING

We have had Wing Parking managing and controlling parking at Newland Court for a few years now and in late December last year I was told by a neighbour that when they renewed their Wing parking permit they were told that after the 10^th December2022 our parking permits would cease to be enforceable as Wing Parking would no longer be managing parking at Newland Court as their contract with Brent Council had ended.

I phoned Wing Parking and was told the same thing so I called Brent Council and was told that we were sent consultation letters regarding Wing Parking’s management at Newland Court which is untrue as I have spoken to several residents and none received any consultation letter from Brent. I have since found out that Brent Council said they consulted with all residents and are now doing a trial with 5 estates using Serco the security firm as their new source.

‘Systemic discrimination can be described as patterns of behaviour, procedures, routines, policies or practices that are part of the structures of an organization (Brent Council) and contributes to less favourable outcomes for minority groups (Brent Residents). Behaviours may include dismissive or derogatory comments, gossip, ignoring others, judgemental attitudes or isolating others.     

I have already accused Brent Council of Systemic Discrimination regarding other issues that Newland Court residents are facing in which I hope is being looked at as I am still waiting for a response to. So can you please find out why residents at Newland Court were never consulted regarding the 2 issues I have raised and what is going to happen at Newland Court now regarding non resident drivers who have now started parking as they like on our estate and even in between the garages preventing an elderly disabled driver from getting her car out of her garage on a couple of occasions. Also can our recycling bins be emptied????

BREAKING: Veolia to be awarded new integrated Brent Council Public Realm contract worth £137m over 8 years

 The first Brent Council Cabinet of 2023 will be requested to award the new  Integrated Easte Waste Collections and Winter Maintenance contract to Veolia:

[Approve] the award of the Integrated Contract to Veolia Environmental Services UK Ltd for an initial contract period of eight (8) years, with an option to extend for a further eight (8) year contract period in the estimated sum of £17.13m for 2023/24, circa £137m over the initial 8-year term of the contract or circa £274m over the full 16-year contract period.

The new contract introduces a twin stream recycling system of paper and card recycling in bags one week and remaining blue bin recycling in the next week.  There will also be a new small items collection service. Education and Communication on waste services will be provided in-house.

Frequency of street cleaning on a rota basis will be ended and instead there will be an 'intelligence led' response by a Task Force to respond to litter hot-spots.

The webcast of the Public Ream Scrutiny Committee meeting  that considered the issue can be viewed HERE.

The Committee had been concerned about the discrepancy  between the on-line consultation rejection of the changes and the acceptance of the changes in the much smaller face-to-face consultations. An officer had admitted that the street cleansing changes would not produce a better outcome but were made necessary by financial constraints. 

The Cabinet Report states

A report on the Integrated Contract procurement programme was considered by Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 13 December 2022. The Committee's recommendations are included below and these will be taken forward by officers in early 2023.

i) Produce a diagram/flowchart detailing all milestones from May 2019 when the Redefining Local Services (RLS) programme was first initiated.
ii) Review household bulky waste collection charges, including consideration of a sliding scale of charges linked to the number of items to be collected, rather than the current fixed rate of £35 for up to five items.
iii) Undertake a feasibility study on the potential for introducing a mixed approach to paper/card recycling collections, to explore whether any recycling collection rounds in the borough would be more suited to the use of bins rather than sacks.
iv) Arrange a session with ward councillors and Neighbourhood Managers to inform the design and development of the new recycling engagement and communication plan that will accompany the roll out of the new recycling service. 
v) Liaise with the West London Waste Authority to ensure access is reinstated for pedestrians and cyclists at the Abbey Road Household Reuse and Recycling Centre.
vi) Improve collaboration between in-house enforcement teams and collection operatives in identifying fly tipping hot spots and collating evidence, to remove the burden from residents. 

You can judge for yourselves whether the final report to Cabinet takes the recommendations into account.

 I have embedded the full report below. Service changes can be found in 7.4 onwards (Twin Stream Recycling) and in 7.15 onwards ( Intelligence-led Street Cleansing).

 

Postponed Scrutiny Committee will now discuss recycling and street cleansing proposals on Thursday 15th December

Papers for Brent Council meetings are usually posted a week before the meeting in order to enable the public to read them beforehand. This enables the public to request to speak at a meeting if they feel there are issues in the papers about which tey have questions or a view.

Yesterday I noticed that Tuesday's papers for the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee had not been published meaning that councillors and public had little time to read them. In fact, the Committee usually discusses them at a pre-meeting before the actual meeting so councillors would have had even less time to get their head round the issues.

The meeting was due to discuss controversial changes to the recycling service and street cleansing.

I protested to the Council via Twitter and called for the postponement to enable proper perusal of the documents. After interchanges this was conceded.

 

From Wembley Matters: Dec 8^th Brent Council: papers for Tuesday's Scrutiny only just published less than a week before the meeting. Insufficient time for members of the public & likely committee members to adequately scrutinise far-reaching changes to street cleansing, recycling etc. Meeting should be postponed.

 

From Wembley Matters to Cllr Conneely and Cllr Sheth (Chairs of Scrutiny) and Brent Council’s CEO: This is no way to treat Scrutiny. Particularly on such a controversial topic.

 

From Brent Council: Dec 9^th Thank you for raising this concern about the delayed publication of some of the scrutiny papers for which we apologise. All papers have now been published in full and can be viewed on the council website.

 

In the circumstances, to enable residents and the committee to have the usual amount of time to review the content, the meeting has been postponed. The rearranged meeting will now take place on Thursday 15 December.

 

From Wembley Matters: Thank you. A good decision.

 

This is the main paper for the Resources and Public Realm Scrutinny Committee now to be held on Thursday 15th December:

Redefining Local Services: Update on the Integrated Street Cleansing, Waste Collections and Winter Maintenance Services Contract Procurement Programme PDF 422 KB

For Recycling the Council pronounces its 8 week trial of alternate weeks reycling a success The first week a paper sack collection for paper and card and the second the normal blue bin collection minus paper and card.:

The results from the eight-week trial have been analysed and the trial is considered to have been a success when measured against the following key critical success factors

• The set out % for the sacks (the number of households putting their bluesack out with paper and card)
• Contamination levels within the sacks
• Contamination in the existing, blue-lidded recycling bin (including levels of paper/card)

They reject a weekly 'twin' collection of both sack and blue bin as too expensive and say it would mean cuts in other services. Officers recommend that the Preferred Option (alternate collections) be included in the final Integrated Contract.

They argue this method will mean less contamination of waste and thus increase recycling rates and save money.

The officers give more weight to the Face to Face meetings they held (which favoured to proposed system) than the On-Line Consultation which rejected it. Nearly 8 times as many residents took part in the On-line consultaion compared with Face to Face at the Roadshows. Officers felt this was because they saw the sacks and were able to talk to Council employees about the new system.

The majority of the On-Line consultees wanted to keep the present system:
 

The suggested changes in the Street Cleansing Contract are for a switch from a 'frequency led system' (Translation: How often your street is cleaned on a regulat basis) to an 'Intelligence Led System' when new officers in teams and residents let thecontractor know when a street needs cleaning.

The approach will include six new, dedicated rapid response teams in each Brent Connect Area (with two in Wembley) which the council will be able to task directly to address any ad hoc issues arising and to target hotspots.  

Data management will also be improved within the new contract with a new dedicated Digital Manager post sitting with the contractor and a live dashboard shared with the Council’s client team which we will jointly monitor daily and which the council will analyse for trends to determine locations which require changing levels of resource. The new regime will therefore be flexible allowing resources to be reallocated where required across the borough.

This comes with a reduction in frequency of the cleaning of residential streets: (Note DM and DL and North Circular)

I could not find a list of DH, DM and DL roads or definitions but will try and find out tomorrow.  Again On-line responders were more likely to oppose the changes, though not as strongly as for Recycling.
 

Residents made some suggestions on improving street cleansing and the officers responded:

 

Additional measures include the Education Team, currently with Veolia, being brought in-house and a new free, bookable small items collection service would be introduced. The  service would collect:

• Textiles
• Small electrical appliances
• Household batteries
• Paint
• Used coffee pods

Consultation Findings LINK

 

 

 

Brent Council running recycling trial for 5,000 selected properties. Monday Oct 3rd to Friday Nov 25th - Details

 From Brent Council

We are running a recycling trial which will see temporary changes to the way recycling is collected at around 5,000 properties in Brent.

The trial will test the effectiveness of spliting recycling into to two separate bins, one with paper and carboard and one with containers (milk jugs, jars, tins etc.). This is on a small scale, so we can better understand the potential impacts it may have on residents, recycling rates and waste contamination.

The trial takes place over an eight week period between Monday, 3 October and Friday, 25 November as part of a trial of the proposed alternate weekly recycling service that the council recently consulted on.

Properties taking part in the trial have been sent a letter with all of the relevant information. These properties will be given a reusable, weatherproof blue sack to separate their paper and card into. The current blue-lidded recycling bin is to continue to be used for containers like plastic, tins and glass.

The paper and card sack will be collected on an alternate week to the usual recycling bin. For example:

• week 1 – we collect your paper and card sack
• week 2 – we collect your recycling bin.

Why are we carrying out this trial in Brent?

In March 2023, the current waste collections contract that Brent Council operates will come to an end. We are taking this opportunity to review and consider changes to the recycling collections service you receive, and the system being trialled in your area is the Council’s preferred choice of service for the new contract. This is for several reasons:

1. Changes to national policy resulting from the Environment Act 2021 will probably require us to make changes to the way we provide recycling services in Brent.
2. This trial aims to improve the quality and quantity of recycling from households. From the recent borough-wide Let’s Talk Climate conversation, residents told us they want to do their bit to live more sustainably and help Brent become carbon neutral by 2030. Managing our waste differently will help us to achieve this.
3. The new system being tested will help the council to save money while delivering an improved recycling collection system, as we continue to recover financially from the impact of the pandemic, rising prices, a growing population and a reduction in the funding the Council gets from the government.

Residents that have not received a letter from the council about the consultation are not taking part in the trial and will not receive a blue sack.

Please read our FAQ document if you have more questions about the trail.

LETTER: More time needed for rethink on waste and street cleansing proposals that could make things worse. Deadline tomorrow on under-publicised consultation is not good enough.

 

Dear Editor,

 

I thought your readers would be interested in the issue of waste management, recycling and street cleaning in Brent given your many tweets on the issue. There is a consultation in progress about possible service changes which has not received wide publicity and ends tomorrow.  I have written to Krupa Sheth asking for an extension to the consultation and expressing my concern about the proposals. I urge Wembley Matters readers to respond to the consultation here: https://haveyoursay.brent.gov.uk/en-GB/projects/future-waste-collections-and-street-cleansing-services-consultation

 

Dear Councillor Sheth, 

 

The Council’s public consultation seeking residents’ views on changes to recycling and street cleaning services in Brent will conclude shortly. I am writing with concerns about the way that this consultation was conducted and about your proposed changes to these vital services. 

 

I do not believe that enough time was given to residents to make their views known, nor do I believe that enough residents are in fact aware of the major changes the Labour Council plan to make. As such, the Liberal Democrat group is requesting an immediate extension to the consultation period and for the Council to make more of an effort to engage with local residents and listen to their concerns.

 

In the Summer 2022 ‘Your Brent’ magazine, which is supposedly distributed to all households in the borough, at a cost to the taxpayer, there is very little reference to this major consultation. Why? I would have thought including full details of the proposed changes to recycling and street cleaning should have been a priority in this communication from Brent Council to residents. 

 

·       Could you please confirm why informing residents about the recycling and street cleansing consultation was not prioritised in the Summer 2022 ‘Your Brent’ magazine? 

 

The Liberal Democrat group have been circulating information about the consultation in recent weeks. The consensus from residents is that not enough time has been given for a response. Many are also unsure why information about these major changes to services were not highlighted during the recent local election campaign. The previous Labour administration would have known decisions were needed regarding budget setting and Veolia’s contract with Brent Council, surely, this should have been explained to residents during the election campaign. The perfect opportunity to engage with and seek views from residents.

 

I am also very concerned about the proposed changes themselves. 

 

Firstly, I do not believe that the plan to ask residents to segregate recyclables, for collection on an alternate week basis, will work. 

 

·       What evidence is there that this system will lead to improved recycling rates? 

·       Have you factored in the education campaign that will be needed to ensure all residents are familiarised with this major change? 

·       What are the financial implications of this decision?

 

On street cleaning, I fear the proposals are even worse. The consultation stipulates that streets will not automatically be cleaned every week, instead they will only be cleaned “if required”.

 

·       Who will judge whether local street cleaning is “required”?

·       How exactly does the Council plan to execute this intelligence led initiative?

 

Local residents are rightly unhappy that services they pay for through their Council Tax, are being changed in this way. We believe it will lead to dirtier streets and worsening recycling rates in Brent. Both things we all want to avoid. 

 

We request an urgent rethink to these proposals and more time for local people to be consulted. I am also requesting a Councillor briefing, with yourself and Council Officers, for all political groups. I am aware you have already delivered a briefing to the Labour Group, however, the Opposition need to be consulted too and afforded the opportunity to scrutinise proposals as is proper in a democratic setting. 

 

I look forward to your response on these matters. 

 

Kind regards, 

 

Cllr Anton Georgiou

Liberal Democrat Councillor, Alperton

London Borough of Brent