The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Goldman and Newton with no substitutes appointed. Apologies for absence were also received from Councillor Bush who had appointed Councillor Keteca as his substitute.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on Tuesday, 16 June 2026.

It was moved by Councillor Amos, seconded by Councillor Bensilum and RESOLVED that the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on Tuesday, 16 June 2026 be confirmed as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman noted that in minute 9 of the minutes of the previous meeting, a written response had been requested from the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning and he requested that this be followed up.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, Other Registerable Interests of Non-Registerable Interests, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

Councillors J Henderson and Steady both noted for the public record that they were members of the Portfolio Holder Working Party for the implementation of the waste and street cleaning contract.

Subject to providing two working days' notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

No Questions on Notice pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 38 had been submitted by Members for this meeting.

To support the Committee with its enquiry in respect of the roll out of the Council’s waste collection and street cleaning contract.

It was reported that the purpose of the report of the Assistant Director (Housing and Environment) was to support the Committee with its enquiry into the roll out of the Council’s waste collection and street cleaning contract.

The Committee was reminded that its agreed Work Programme had included an item for consideration of an update on the roll out of the new waste and recycling contract.

Members were further reminded that, at its meeting held on 14 November 2025, Cabinet had approved the award of the contract to Veolia Environmental Services.

It was reported that the new contract had commenced on 1 April 2026 and that, in order to support the operational delivery and smooth roll out of the contract, an officer working group had been established, meeting initially on a fortnightly basis before moving to monthly meetings as the project progressed. A basic implementation plan had been developed, supported by a separate communications plan.

The Portfolio Holder Working Party had been also re-established and had met on three occasions, namely on 4 March 2026, 15 June 2026 and 12 August 2026.

Members were informed that weekly contract mobilisation meetings had been taking place with the Veolia project manager.

Principal activities and achievements associated with the rollout of the contract included:

Street Cleaning

• Deployment of 238 seasonal blue street litter bins in seafront areas during the first week of April. Those seafront bins had been emptied twice daily and remained in place until the end of September 2026 and would be redeployed in March 2027.
• Additional street cleaning operatives had been employed for seafront areas and working patterns amended.
• Deployment of two electric/pedal-powered carts to facilitate faster responses and easier access for town centre and seafront bin emptying (Clacton and Frinton/Walton)
• Deployment of five vacuum barrows to facilitate faster/more accurate street cleaning in town centre areas.
• Electronic mapping of litter bins and reconciliation with existing records – this would facilitate easier monitoring of emptying schedules.

Waste & Recycling Collection

• Delivery of 1,400 food waste recycling caddies to street level homes that had not been offered food waste collections under the previous contract. The caddies and associated information leaflets had been delivered in time for those collections to commence from the beginning of April.
• Review of waste and recycling collection rounds in preparation for 1 October commencement of the new Simpler Recycling compliant collection service. This had been intended to minimise changes for residents and meant that only 900 residents would experience changes to their waste and recycling collection days.
• Four different versions of information leaflets had been required.
• Commencement on 17 August 2026 of the delivery of an additional green recycling box, lid and information leaflet for all street level households in order to provide additional capacity for the wider range of recycling that would be collected. At the time of reporting, the delivery programme was 50% complete and on target to deliver all 70,000 by mid-September.
• Commencement of a public-facing communications campaign promoting the collection changes taking effect from October.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

The report provides the Committee with its approved Work Programme for 2026/27, including progress with enquiries set out in its Work Programme, feedback to the Committee on the decisions relating to previous recommendations from the Committee in respects of enquiries undertaken and a list of forthcoming decisions for which public notice has been given.

The Assistant Director (Corporate Policy & Support) presented the Committee with an overview of its approved Work Programme for 2026/27, including progress with enquiries, feedback to the Committee on the decisions relating to previous recommendations from the Committee in respects of enquiries undertaken and a list of forthcoming decisions for which public notice had been given.

A provisional date of Monday, 5 October 2026 had been proposed for the Task and Finish Group’s Temporary Accommodation Enquiry Day, subject to the availability of those required to participate in the inquiry.

It was unanimously RESOLVED that the Committee:

(a)  notes its approved Work Programme for 2026/27 (Appendix A), feedback to the Committee on the decisions in respect of previous recommendations (Appendix B) and the list of forthcoming decisions (Appendix C);

(b)  notes the remaining contents of the report.