Agenda and minutes

No Declarations of Interest were made. 

The minutes from the previous Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham Joint Waste Board meeting held on 20^th March, 2015, were noted.  None of the Elected Members in attendance at this meeting attended the last meeting so the minutes could not be agreed for accuracy or content. 

Agreed: -  That the minutes of the previous meeting be noted. 

·                Appointment of Chairman   

·                Appointment of Vice Chairman

·                Authorised Representatives

·                IAA2 Delegations Report     

The Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham Joint Waste Board discussed arrangements for the 2015/2016 Municipal Year, as set out in the submitted report.  This included arrangements for Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the Joint Waste Board and the delegations relating to the BDR Waste PFI Contract, the ‘Principal Contract’ of the Inter-Authority Agreement (IAA2). 

In accordance with IAA2, a BDR Steering Committee had been established and empowered to make day-to-day decisions required for the management and administration of the Principal Contract.  However, the Local Government Act (1972) did not allow the delegation of powers to be exercised jointly by a committee of officers.  Delegations could be made to one officer who would be known as the ‘Authorised BDR Steering Committee Member’. 

The Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham Steering Committee’s structure during the 2015/2016 Municipal Year would be: -

·       Barnsley Representative – the Service Director, Environment and Transport (or their named representative) – the ‘Authorised BDR Steering Committee Member’;

·       Doncaster Representative – the Assistant Director Environment (or their named representative);

·       Rotherham Representative – the Director of Streetpride (or their named representative). 

Discussion followed and the following points were made: -

·       Councillor E. Hoddinott asked what arrangements were in place to ensure that there was a record of delegated decisions, and how this was overseen.  -  The BDR Manager explained that records were kept and relevant decisions were made at individual Council level.

·       It was agreed that a training programme would be created for the new Elected Members on the BDR Joint Waste Board.  

Agreed: - (1) That Councillor K. Sims be the Chairperson of the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham Joint Waste Board for the 2015/2016 Municipal Year. 

(2)  That the BDR Joint Waste Board’s thanks be recorded to the outgoing Chair, Councillor R. Miller, for the way in which he had performed the role of Chair

(3)  That Councillor S. Holland be the Vice-Chairperson of the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham Joint Waste Board for the 2015/2016 Municipal Year.

(4)  That, with the exception of the decisions reserved to the Authorities for a unanimous decision under IAA2, all other decisions in respect of the Principal Contract be delegated by the BDR Joint Waste Board to the Authorised BDR Steering Committee Member.

(5)  That the Authorised BDR Steering Committee Member may delegate certain decisions to the BDR Manager.

(6)  That the BDR Manager may delegate any decisions delegated to them to a member of the Joint Waste Team if the right to delegate is granted by the Authorised BDR Steering Committee Member. 

(7)  That the Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council’s Representative on the BDR Steering Committee (Mr. Paul Castle) be the Authorised BDR Steering Committee Member for the 2015/2016 Municipal Year. 

·                Governance

·                Project Delivery

·                Technical

·                Legal

·                Financial

·                Communications

·                Resources

·                Other

Beth Baxter, BDR Manager, presented her annual report to the BDR Joint Waste Board. 

The report covered: -

·       Governance arrangements, including Elected Member membership;

·       Project delivery at the Bolton Road and Ferrybridge sites, including the percentage completed against key milestones, the target completion dates and actual completion dates (where relevant) for the key milestones;

·       An update on Grange Lane transfer station;

·       Snagging and defect resolution work at Bolton Road;

·       A2A (formally Ecodeco) - Readiness testing at Bolton Road for mechanical biological treatment;

·       Jones Celtic Bio Energy – installations, construction and communications with the contractor with their monthly report being more detailed;

·       Recruitment was underway and specialist vacancies had been advertised in all local and specialist media.  A recruitment event had taken place at Wath Library for general roles for the new facility.  More than 800 people had attended this event.  Early recruitment had been necessary to ensure that there was sufficient time for adequate training and sufficient depth of understanding prior to the plant becoming operational;

·       Plant developments and planning permissions were outlined in respect of the Ferrybridge and Grange Lane site;

·       Health and safety report: - there had been 2 RIDDOR issues, 4 minor issues, and one incident had taken place over the past year;

·       Following fire incidents at other facilities, the BDR Fire Strategy was reviewed and improvements made following lessons learned;

·       A redacted version of the Project Agreement had been uploaded onto the BDR website;

·       The operational management costs for 2014/2015 were within budget;

·       The 2015/2016 budget forecast was agreed and would be the same as 2014/2015;

·       Communications.  

Discussion followed and covered: -

·       Councillor Sims requested that the information relating to the fire strategy included that it ‘complied for insurance purposes’;

·       The cricket pavilion had been a condition of the planning consent;

·       Councillor Hoddinott asked for an update on whether recruitment had been from within the local community. -  Beth Baxter confirmed that of the 40 Operatives on site, 35 had been recruited form the local area and 5 were specialist staff from Shanks;

·       Councillor Hoddinott asked for an update on what analysis had been undertaken on the contents of black bins.  -  Beth Baxter confirmed that a series of compositional analysis had been undertaken and ways of increasing recycling were also being explored.

Councillor Miller thanked Beth Baxter and the Communications Team for the work they had completed on publicising the BDR Joint Waste Project. 

Agreed: -  That the report be noted. 

Beth Baxter, BDR Manager, provided a verbal update on the commissioning process of the BDR Joint Waste Project. 

·       Testing: -

o   Many tests were on a rolling 28-day period;

o   Some tests were only required once;

o   The dry recycling target was proving challenging and could cause the 1^st July target date to be missed.

Councillor Hoddinott asked about the start date and whether there had been any communications about a possible delay? -  Beth explained that it was programmed to be 1^st July and it was hoped to still achieve this.  There would be no noticeable change for residents from commissioning to full service as the plant was currently working above capacity. 

Agreed: -  That the update be received. 

Beth Baxter introduced the Operational Management Budget report that outlined the 2014/2015 BDR Waste Partnership operational management budget, and presented the 2015/2016 budget for approval. 

The 2014/2015 operational management budget had been set at £370,984, which was subsequently approved by each Council.

The BDR Manager was responsible for the day-to-day management of resources and reported expenditure and projected outturns to the BDR Steering Committee each month. 

The 2014/2015 budget had outturned with an under-spend of £140,761.

The BDR Waste Partnership would comply with all audit requirements and make records available for public inspection in all three local authority areas between 8^th – 15^th June, 2015. 

The 2015/2016 budget had been set at £370, 984 and was within prudential levels to allow for potential issues during the commissioning and operational phase of the project. 

Agreed: -  That the report be received and its content noted. 

Beth Baxter, BDR Manager, presented the BDR PFI Waste Project’s Risk Register.  It was within the JCAD format, as this was consistent with Rotherham’s recording mechanism. Risks were assessed by probability and impact and graded 1-5. 

One area had been rated red.  This was compliance within the waste PFI transition phase.  This related to noise issues and the potential for odours to come from the site.  Acceptance tests were not quite hitting the desired levels yet and could lead to date slippage. 

Councillor Sims asked that future Risk Register reports have a cover report to provide commentary on the issues to put them into context. 

Agreed: -  That the report be received and its content noted. 

·                Noise (Beth Baxter to report)

Bolton-on-Dearne – noise: -

Beth Baxter, BDR Manager, reported that seven complaints about noise had been received from the arc of streets immediately in the vicinity of the Bolton-on-Dearne site; actual noise levels were higher than anticipated in the noise models.  Two separate noise surveys had been completed and a third was expected in the next 2-3 weeks.  A noise baffler had been commissioned and monitoring would continue. 

The BDR Manager was contacting residents on a weekly basis.  John Healey MP was also aware of the actions being taken and communications with residents. 

Councillor Miller understood all of the works that were underway to address the issues and was pleased by how quickly the matter had been responded to. 

Councillor Hoddinott asked about the expected timescales for when residents could expect a difference?  Beth explained that there would be a small improvement by the day after the meeting and a larger improvement by the middle of the following week.  The situation would be monitored and the Communications Team was involved with disseminating the message. 

Paul Castle asked how would residents get to find out on a regular basis what was going on? - Beth would continue to telephone them every Friday afternoon to say what was happening, as she had been doing over the last 6-7 weeks. 

BDR Joint Waste Board Meeting frequency: -

Councillor Miller raised an issue in relation to the approaching commissioning stage.  A lot of responsibility had been delegated to Officers meaning there was less need to meet regularly.  Meeting twice a year at June and December should be sufficient with the caveat to call a special meeting within reasonable notice if required. 

Councillor Hoddinott was concerned that this may be too infrequent, but would support the proposal provided regular briefing updates were provided, along with training for Elected Members who were new to the BDR JWB. 

Agreed: -  That these items be noted. 

Agreed: -  That the 2015/2016 BDR Joint Waste Board Meetings take place on: -

·       Friday 11^th December, 2015 – 1.30 p.m. side meeting /2.00 pm full meeting;

·       Friday 10^th June, 2016 – 1.30 p.m. side meeting /2.00 pm full meeting (to be agreed at the December meeting).