Agenda item

Subject to the required notice being given, members of the public can ask questions of the Leader of the Council, Portfolio Holders or Chairmen of Committees.

The Chairman shall determine the number of questions to be tabled at a particular meeting in order to limit the time for questions and answers to 21 minutes.

There are two such Questions on this occasion.

Subject to the required notice being given, members of the public could ask questions of the Leader of the Council, Portfolio Holders or Chairmen of Committees.

The following questions had been received, on notice, from members of the public:

Question One

From Tom Howard to Councillor Talbot, Environment and Public Space Portfolio Holder:

“As the portfolio holder for the Environment and Open Spaces should be aware, there is a high level of discontent amongst the residents of Tendring regarding the collection of refuse, recycling and garden waste. 

Since the recent service changes, the service provided by Veolia on behalf of Tendring District Council has been nothing short of shambolic and implementing penalty charges would seem in order, as would public acknowledgement of the problems and the implementation of an appropriate action plan to bring the service on track.

In the case of the garden waste collection service, this is an add-on paid for service equating to a service charge of £2 per contracted collection. Where these collections have been repeatedly missed, the Council is in breach of its contract with its residents for this paid for service, and the Council should be refunding residents pro rata for the missed collections and services not rendered.

Please will the Portfolio Holder advise what action he is taking regarding the above?”

Councillor Talbot replied to the question as follows:

“The new waste and recycling service was rolled out over a 10 week period, which finished on the 16th August. During this period over 58,000 Wheelie Bins have been delivered to properties all across the District by our contractors JETT, with properties receiving their bin going live on to the new service the following week.

For the vast majority of households this initial phase of receiving their bin went without incident, with the bin delivered on the prescribed week as advertised on the Council website along with their collection calendar and food caddy liners. With the missed bin delivery list running at just under 1000 bins which equates to 1.72% of all bins delivered, these missed bins were mostly re-delivered during the initial 10 weeks, additional to this the contractors were back for the week (2nd to 6th September) mopping up the last of the reported missed bin deliveries.

As the delivery of the bins was over a 10 week period the new service was being provided alongside the existing service, with both the new and old service routes changing every week as more and more bins were delivered to residents. With this has been disruption to the collection service and whilst the vast majority of households has again been a seamless transition Officers continue to work closely with Veolia as a priority towards the affected residents to capture the isolated households which have experienced repeated missed collections, ensuring that these properties are highlighted to the collection crews who are all learning their new collection rounds.

With any service change of this magnitude, disruption is unfortunately to be expected, prior to the commencement of the new service Officers spoke to their counterparts from Colchester, Maldon, Harlow and other authorities in Essex all who have undergone service changes and the feedback from them all is that it can take up to 6 months for a new service to properly bed in and as such we thank the residents of Tendring for their patience and support as we provide them with a new collection service.

Whilst data is still to be verified by the County Council, the new service which in its entirety has only been fully live to all residents for 3 weeks, is already delivering greatly increased recycling that will substantially improve our recycling percentage figures. This is testament to the service, that it is delivering what we hoped for, and for which the residents of Tendring must take praise in embracing the new service and participating in recycling and waste minimisation.

You ask Sir, what action I am taking regarding the detail contained in your question?  Inter alia, I can say that now the Bin delivery has been completed my Officers have used the staff who accompanied the Bin delivery vehicles to form a second small ‘hit squad’ to investigate and solve problems as they arise.

In relation to garden waste missed collections, like all collection services we urge customers to contact the Council or the contractor in the first instance to report the missed collection.  There has been a period when residents have needed to call a number of times, but our aim is that once notified we will then endeavour to collect the missed collection in a timely manner, which is normally the same week for Garden waste and so still provides the customer with 25 collections over the year.
Whilst I cannot comment on specifics where there are cases of continued missed collections which results in the householder not receiving their full 25 collections, Officers from the Waste Team will investigate further and take any actions which they feel are appropriate based upon the information provided by both the householder and Veolia.”

Question Two

From James Burfoot to Councillor Stock OBE, Leader of the Council:

“During December 2014 the Council removed parts of ornate cast iron lampposts situated along Clacton seafront. These structures were erected circa. 1912 and have been Grade II listed since July 4 1986. Naturally, due to this history, they form an important part of Clacton’s heritage. A media article dated 24 December 2014 (Gazette: p37) states that these parts were removed on the grounds of health and safety. The Council of course has a duty of care to ensure its property is safe.

However, it can also be a criminal offence to carry out demolition or alteration works on listed buildings without obtaining proper permissions. When work is carried out on an emergency basis this must be proved to be necessary and temporary.

Within the article Cabinet Member for Coast Protection at the time of the removal, Cllr Nick Turner states “we have dismantled these listed structures and will be storing everything carefully until we can decide the best way forward to repair and restore them”.

I have recently made contact with Cllr Nick Turner through email correspondence and, despite him no longer having authority over this matter, would like to thank him for his efforts in responding and for forwarding my concerns to the Council. This is greatly appreciated.

I assume that, at the time of the removal, the Council complied with all relevant legislation and obtained all necessary legal permissions and that they have indeed been stored “carefully”.

We are fast approaching the fifth anniversary of these “temporary emergency works”. Therefore could the Leader of the Council please explain the Council’s plans to restore these lampposts either to a cosmetic or ideally full working condition in order that these priceless features of our town’s history can once again form a paramount role in the ongoing regeneration of our Town Centre and seafront?”

Councillor Stock replied to the question as follows:

“Thank you, Mr Burfoot for your question.

I am advised that there is a total of twenty-one cast iron lamp columns along Clacton seafront. Four lamp columns on the Western Promenade within the seafront gardens conservation area were refurbished as part of a heritage lottery scheme in 2000 / 2001 at a cost of £10,000 per column and these columns need further work.

Of the remaining columns, fifteen are the Council’s responsibility and all have had their tops removed at various times over the past twenty-five years due to concerns over public safety. All action was taken in line with the advice of the Council’s Planning Department. The removals were done on safety grounds and no criminal offence has been committed.

A further two columns are within the Pavilion site.

The parts removed from columns along the eastern promenade in previous years were corroded and beyond repair and the buried private cable supplying the electricity was no longer serviceable.

In 2014 the remaining five lamp heads were removed from columns situated on the western promenade and the aim at the time was to retain these in the hope of it being possible to reuse these parts in any future restoration. However, they were found to be suffering from severe corrosion and not considered fit for repair and re use. They were stored within a Council facility for a considerable time before eventual disposal.

It would be possible to take moulds from remaining lamp heads for a future restoration project, should this be required, but, based on the work carried out in 2001 and more recent enquiries with potential restorers the cost of refurbishing the remaining lamp columns is likely to be anything from £300,000 to £600,000 depending on the extent of the refurbishment undertaken to the columns and the condition of underground cabling serving them.

I have just made a statement about exciting new plans being drawn up for Clacton town centre and I would urge everyone to continue to engage with that process to ensure the best outcome for the town.”