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

 

Cllr Duffy calls for Special Council Meeting on waste strategy waste

Cllr Duffy (Labour, Kilburn) has sent the following email to all Brent Councillors:

Dear Councillor

Firstly I am sorry for the length of this email , but I believe it deals with important issues.

I am asking for your support to call a special Council meeting to discuss the issues concerning  the waste of resources  around fly-tipping , enforcement and bulky waste collections, together with the cabinets failure to maximise income on the green bin service  and their failure to improve our recycling levels.

FLY-TIPPING

To get to the issue why I am sending this email  and to put it into respective. In Nov 2015 a scrutiny task group reported into fly –tipping which was plaguing Brent ( and other boroughs) and made up more than 90% of Street Environment complaints. The Task group review was concerned with "reducing the levels of fly tipping in Brent and ensuring clean and safe environments for Brent resident’s; and as a result, a reduction in cleanup and enforcement costs".

The committee looked at 14 different types of fly-tipping , which were causing problems in Brent. Dog-ends was not among them and did not figure in any charts made known to the committee. The task group was informed of 2013/14  fly-tipping incidents and costs. There were 7001 incidents of reported fly-tipping. 

The  Lead member for the environment advocated employing Kingdom Securities  to deal with the problem of Fly-tipping. Kingdom Securities are a well known low-wage , non-union company.. The cabinet and later the Scrutiny Committee agreed (against my advice) to award the contract to Kingdom Securities without going out to tender or looking at an In-House option. You may remember the details of that contract  that the private contractor was to get £46 per Fixed penalty notice (PFN) issued ,the council would get £34 for every PFN paid  and the council would  paid all legal fees and that Kingdom securities would not search or investigate fly-tipping instead they would concentrate on Cigarette dog -ends even though they were not named as a problem. Altogether approximately 6000 were issued ( many to vulnerable people ) therefore Kingdom securities received  £246k and the leadership and Lead member used the soundbite "Zero Tolerance"  to explain the policy.

How wrong they were!

Protest over Donoghue's Cricklewood waste facility April 28th

From a group of local residents and community groups campaigning for the urgent relocation of overgrown P B Donoghue waste management site in residential Cricklewood

Twitter @DumpDonoghue 

UPDATE: It is time for Veolia's Public Realm Contract performance to be scrutinised

"Love where you live'

Brent Council's bulk collection service before the Public Realm contract was handed to Veolia used to take about a fortnight from request to notification.

I have received a number of complaints about how long it now takes for goods to be collected. 

This is an example sent in by reader Paul Lorber with a 7 week gap.

From Brent Customer Services June 15^th 2016
Thank you for your Special Collection enquiry. Your request for:
Item 1: Freezer
Item 2: Non Metal Bed Frame
Item 3: Other Household Waste
Item 4: Other Household Waste
Item 5: Other Household Waste
To be collected has been logged and your unique reference number is  XXXXXXX
Your items will be collected on 08 August 2016.
Please ensure the items are placed together in the front garden ready for collection.
If you have any queries or wish to change the week of your collection please telephone the Customer Services on 020 8937 5050.

 Lorber has asked what the service timescales are but remarks that if this service has been commissioned by Brent Council and is acceptable to them it is clearly poor value for money, although representing plenty of profit for Veolia.

 Lorber is fortunate in having a front drive in which the items can be placed but many residents have extremely small front gardens or none at all and is is surely no wonder that mattresses, sofas, fridges, gas stoves, lavatory pans and broken gym equipment all end up on the pavement attracting further fly-tipping.

Brent Council promised an improved service when Veolia took over but I pointed out what I saw as a weakness in the contract:

One aspect that may concern councillors is that Veolia will be responsible for monitoring itself:

The contract will be self-monitoring, meaning that the contractor is accountable for measuring, monitoring and improving their own performance with the council carefully auditing their performance. This, along with Key Outcome Targets set for each of the different services will ensure that the Contractor is motivated to deliver the services.

Veolia will also be dealing with complaints from councillors and residents in the first instance thus 'placing responsibility on the Contractor to ‘own’ and be accountable for service complaints'.

I think it would be useful for the Scrutiny Committee responsible for Public Realm to review Veolia's performance by inviting Veolia executives to answer questions from councillors and the public about the service.  Cllr John Duffy has raised a number of issues on his own blog LINK and on Wembley Matters  LINK  LINK

This should cover the grounds maintenance of BHP estates and parks maintenance which were handed over to Veolia along with street cleansing, cemeteries, sports centres and much else.  When the Council gave the Public Realm contract to Veolia they withdrew from the Green Flag scheme for parks and open spaces which had provided a widely valued external audit of parks maintenance.

One matter we have heard little about is how the litter enforcement contract, awarded to Kingdom, is working.  This was also criticised by Cllr Duffy LINK and an update on it would be useful as it was seen as a trial.  At the same time Veolia's promised role in spotting fly-tipping and acting upon it included  working with Brent's enforcement team. Is this happening?

From the original Officer's report to Cabinet on the Public Realm contract:

Fly tips will be cleared promptly. That is a key requirement. Veolia have committed their operatives to becoming “the eyes and the ears” of the council, trained to identify, report, and manage all day-to-day fly-tips using mobile devices. The initial role on all enforcement will be Veolia. Enforcement investigations will be managed as far as possible by the Veolia supervisors and managers who will ensure photographic evidence and pocket notebook records are taken to secure evidence. Once a case is correctly and sufficiently built, Veolia will work with Brent’s enforcement team to bring final prosecution. 


UPDATE; The day after this article was published Brent Council issued a press release on the Kingdom fixed penalty litter enforcment trial. LINK

Viridor recommended for Brent's recyclate sales contract

The Brent Executive will be asked to approve the award of the contract for the processing and sale of recyclable material collected by the Council to Viridor Waste Management Limited. Currently this service is provided by Veolia but market testing by the Council suggested that the service did not provide good value so they put it out to tender.

The Council recognises that there is a high level of risk attached to the contract because of the unpredictability of tonnages collected and the amount paid for recyclates. They note:

In terms of improvement from the current position, this price creates an overall benefit that ranges from £448,625 if there is no increase in tonnage next year to £533,500 if 22,006 tonnes are collected. There is no certainty around waste arisings and the council cannot rely on a guaranteed level of income .

This presents a high level of risk. Next year’s waste budget has been set on the basis that

22,000 tonnes of recyclables will be collected. Any shortfall in that level of recycling which comes about through failure to divert recyclables from the residual waste stream will come at a cost of £107.25 per tonne. A 1,000 tonnes shortfall will cost £107,250, and only achieving 18,500 tonnes would cost £375,375 of the proposed saving. Only achieving present recycling levels will deliver £448,625 - £375,375 = £73,250 saving against planned budgets, whilst diverting 22,000 tonnes in total would deliver the full £533,500.

Currently the procurement process is under way for the new Public Realm contract covering waste management, recycling, street cleanings and parks and BHP grounds maintenance. 

Local MPs should back zero waste EDM

With air pollution a constant concern in London, and particularly in Brent, readers may wish to ask our local members of parliament to sign Early Day Motion 383 on 'Zero waste strategies, recycling and incineration'. With possible incinerators at Brent Cross and Park Royal the quality of our air and its impact on the young, unwell and elderly is a vital local issue.

EDM 383

That this House notes the European Parliament's adoption by a large majority, on 24 May 2012, of a resolution on a Resource Efficient Europe, which commits to working towards a zero waste strategy and the Parliament's call on the Commission to bring forward legislative proposals, by the end of 2014, to ban both landfill and the incineration of recyclable and compostable waste in Europe, by 2020; further notes growing evidence of incinerator overcapacity in the UK by 2015, which seriously risks harming recycling performance, as has already happened in some European countries; further notes UK figures showing a steady and significant decline in residual waste since the middle of the last decade - even allowing for the economic recession - and rising recycling rates; acknowledges the impact that these developments will have on the economic case for, and environmental sustainability of, mass-burn incinerators in the UK within a decade; and calls on the Secretaries of State for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change, and Communities and Local Government, and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to work together to examine how government policy can positively facilitate the pursuit of zero waste strategies, and to report to Parliament on their findings as a matter of urgency, as many local communities across the country are currently opposing their local waste authorities' costly, environmentally damaging and unsustainable plans to build mass-burn incineration plants.

Sixteen MPs including Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Democratic Unionist and Green have signed so far.Full list HERE

Veolia campaign steps up

 All Brent councillors have been sent a letter from Brent Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Dump Veolia West London campaign requesting them to support the following request:

That Veolia Environmental Services be excluded from the bid and tender process for the West London Residual Waste Services because we believe there is evidence that:

a) Veolia has demonstrated racist practices in its recruitment policies; and

b) Veolia has been guilty of grave misconduct through its active participation in violations of international and humanitarian laws and norms

Veolia is on the long-list for the multi-million 25 year contract for dealing with the residual waste of Harrow, Hounslow, Hillingdon, Ealing, Richmond and Brent. 302 Brent residents have signed the letter setting out the evidence for the request based on Veolia's activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The full letter is HERE

The WLWA will shortly be drawing up the short-list for the contract and campaigners hope that they will be excluded at this stage. Councillors were invited to a public meeting on Tuesday November 22nd where the  legal, moral and human rights case for Veolia's exclusion was put forward. A recording of the meeting can be viewed on the Brent Green's blog along with a report of the meeting by Shahrar Ali  HERE

Cllr James Powney is Brent's representative on the WLWA.

Yesterday evening Brent TUC (Trades Council) approved a model motion on the issue and decided to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Meanwhile Brent Council's contract with Veolia for waste management and street sweeping runs out in 2014. The procurement process will start well before then.  Recently Veolia failed to win a similar contract in Ealing. 

Veolia fails to win Ealing waste management contract

Press Release from Palestine Solidarity Campaign:

In another victory for Palestinian rights, Ealing Council, in London , has failed to select Veolia for a comprehensive tender for its domestic refuse, street cleaning and parks maintenance contract. The contract is worth approx £300m in total over 15 years and one of Ealing Council’s largest single contracts. This is even more significant given the fact that Veolia had the previous parks maintenance contract.

Veolia remains involved in the building and future operation of a light-rail tramway linking Israel’s illegal settlements with West Jerusalem, facilitating Israel's ‘grave breaches’ of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Veolia Transport Israel also runs two bus services serving the same function as the tramway: supporting and consolidating illegal settlements and tying them more closely into Israel .

Sarah Colborne, PSC Director, said: ‘Veolia’s loss of this contract, following its failure in a number of significant bids in Britain and internationally, is a clear sign that Veolia is paying a high price for its complicity in Israel’s occupation and violations of international law. West London PSC, together with other groups and individuals supporting Palestinian rights, wrote and met councillors from across the political spectrum and council officials, and submitted detailed factual and legal analysis. Veolia must realise that until it pulls out of all its activities serving Israel ’s illegal settlements, it will continue to be a target for the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). Through BDS, those committed to peace and justice are sending a message – we don’t buy into Israel ’s violations of Palestinian rights’ 

Veolia's seven year waste management contract with the London Borough of Brent expires in 2014 and the Council is likely to start the procurement process quite soon.

A look at Hannah Close, possible new waste site

My curiosity led me this afternoon to have a stroll around  the back of the stadium to see where a possible recycling plant might be sited in Hannah Close. Careys, the local company who helped save the Welsh Harp Environmental Centre, has a lot of property in the area along with their waste management subsidiary Seneca.

Seneca's  security guards were worried about me taking photographs and denied that the company had anything to do with Careys. The Jubilee and Metropolitan lines run behind the site and on the other side is St Margaret Clitherow Primary School and residential streets which include Quainton, Verney, Aylesbury Chesham and Village Way.

Hannah Close, and Atlas Road which it joins, already have several recycling sites:

The River Brent runs flows to Hannah Close and runs beneath the railway line. Wembley Brook is also close by. Campaigners in Ealing have been concerned about possible contamination of the River Brent if new waste processing facilities are built and there must be similar concerns in Wembley.

The following photograph was taken today with waste fluid apparently flowing from Harringtons in Fourth Way.

A further concern is the proposal, in the Wembley Masterplan, to open up North End Road and join it again to Bridge Road in Wembley. At present North End Road is closed where it meets Atlas Road. If it was opened up and joined to Bridge Road a route would be established to the recycling facilities in Hannah Close, via Atlas Road, increasing lorry traffic past the Danes Court and  Empire Court flats, which at present are a peaceful haven despite their proximity to the railway.

Waste Strategy Crisis: street sweeping cut as Veolia extracts more profit from Brent Council

Brent Council's negotiations with Veolia over the new waste strategy seem to be in trouble and have resulted in proposals for even more drastic reductions in street cleaning services than first expected. Officers say these have to be rushed in time for the October implementation of the new waste strategy despite negotiations with Veolia not being completed.

It is now proposed that in addition to the reduction in Zone 5 sweeping to one per week  that:

• Sweeping in industrial areas (Zone 7) reduced from 7 per week to 2
• Cease afternoon sweeping at weekends
• Reduce mechanical sweeping on weekday mornings
• Reduce weekend day service moving to a skeleton service with mobile teams
• Reduction in frequency in secondary shopping areas (Zone 2) to twice a day
• Stopping the seasonal leaf fall  service

Welcome to Brent - the Dirtier Olympic Borough

Clearly these reductions are going to make an impact on the appearance of the borough as well as making 50 street sweepers redundant. Probing a little deeper it is clear the the Council has not fared well in its negotiations with Veolia. The report to the Executive states:

In outline, it has not been possible to agree the reductions sought by the Council in respect of the waste collection arrangements partly because Veolia are seeking, through this significant change to the contract, the opportunity to try and improve profitability for the remainder of the contract which has, in their view, been eroded by a number of factors since the original start of the contract. Similarly, they are seeking to ensure through the negotiation of the changes to the street cleaning element of the contract, that they have a higher level of profitability for the remainder of the contract than they have recently been enjoying. In consequence, the reductions to the street cleaning regime recommended to meet the 2011-12 and 2012-13 budget requirements, are larger than might have been expected.

This is an understatement. The report reveals that as well as Veolia adding back into the contract indexation, costs that they claim to have been bearing in previous years, an inflation increase of 1% to which they were previously not entitle, there are additional costs of hiring vehicles rather than purchasing them (see my previous blog) and what the report calls 'other refinement by Veolia of figures'. All this added £362k to the budget gap. The report considers various ways of closing the gap but admits that if the savings are not made they will have to be found elsewhere in Environment and Neighbourhood Services. Cllr Powney will be responsible for finding these savings - or more bluntly, making these cuts. The proposals will go to Monday's Executive. The agenda and documents can be found HERE

One controversial element of the savings is Veolia's offer of  reduction in 'gate fee' for dry recyclables from £30 to £22 but this is contingent on less than 5% contamination which will be difficult to achieve with co-mingled collections.

The Brent waste contract comes up for renewal in 2014 and Veolia are also a likely bidder for the huge West London Waste Authority contract LINK The report notes that Veolia are seeking 'through the negotiation of the street cleaning element of the contract, that they have a higher level of profitability for the remainder of the contract than they have recently been enjoying'. Officers recommend that negotiations continue and are escalated to a higher level.

The budget is outlined below but other information in appendices to the report have been declared 'confidential' and not published: (click on image to enlarge)

Independent on 80 giant incinerators planned for 2011

The Independent has an excellent on-line article about the debate around the new incinerators planned for the UK LINK.

The Brent Cross Coalition has been raising urgent questions about the incinerator planned for the new development there on the borders of Brent and of course we have proposals to expand 'waste processing plants' in Park Royal as part of the West London Waste Strategy, with no information on the actual processes that will take place in the plants.

I hope our councillors will take time to read this important article.

Brent Greens on Brent's waste proposals

Brent Green Party has issued this initial response to Brent Council's proposals on waste management:

A genuinely sustainable approach to waste management would be to minimise the amount of waste by reducing packaging, encouraging the re-use of containers and increasing the amount of domestic composting. This could both reduce the number of collections and produce environmental benefits.

We welcome the strengthening of recycling through extending the scheme to flats but are very concerned that waste produced by businesses and commercial properties remains outside the scheme.We are pleased that cardboard is at last to be included in the 'dry' recycling box.

 We are aware that the organic collection will continue to be  weekly but are realistic in assuming that some organic matter will cling to material in recycling bins and that residual collection bins will still contain some organic material.  These will be left outside for a two weeks so it is essential that the council carry out a health and environmental assessment of the consequences of fortnightly collections.