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TITLE OF REPORT: RESIDUAL WASTE TRANSFER
REPORT OF THE HEADS OF LEISURE & ENVIRONMENT & FINANCE, PERFORMANCE & ASSET MANAGEMENT SERVICES
PORTFOLIO HOLDERS: COUNCILLORS P.C.W. BURT & T.W. HONE
1. SUMMARY
1.1 North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) owns the Bury Mead Hitchin Transfer Station, on Bury Mead Road, Hitchin which has been leased to the private sector since 1985. The current lease is due for renewal from the 1st October 2014.
1.2 In addition to the leaseholder undertaking commercial activities on site, in recent years they have also used the Bury Mead site to fulfil a contract with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) which enabled NHDC to tip residual waste at Bury Mead rather than transport direct to other sites outside of the district.
1.3 The incumbent leaseholder of the site, BIFFA has indicated that they do not wish to renew the lease. The primary reason is that the site is no longer economically viable for their business. One reason impacting on this is the obligation NHDC put in the original lease in 1985 to provide a disposal facility for residential waste on Sundays.
1.4 When the lease was granted this was prior to the introduction of landfill tax and almost all waste went to landfill, so the cost of providing a Sunday disposal facility was relatively low. Today, we have a much greater focus on recycling which the Bury Mead site is unable to offer, in part due to it’s size but also because the primary use on the site is waste transfer and sufficient space is not available for sorting of waste. All waste collected on Sundays is, in the main, landfilled. Health & Safety measures have also improved over this period and safe operating systems would now prohibit any commercial activities taking place on the site whilst the public have access. Therefore the Sunday operation is fully funded by the contractor and is no longer financially or operationally sustainable.
1.5 It is proposed that from 1st October 2014 the Bury Mead site is let to a new tenant who will be required to use the site as a transfer station to transport NHDC waste from the site as directed by HCC to another location outside the District. HCC are in the process of carrying out a tender process to appoint a contractor to carry out this transportation service. Officers do not propose to require the new contractor to offer a disposal facility for residential waste on Sundays for the reason set out in this report.
1.6 Further summary information is provided in the exempt Part 2 report.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS
2.1 That Members note that a Part 2 report is to be presented on this matter and that the recommendations of that report are as follows:
Providing that in the opinion of the Strategic Director for Finance, Policy & Governance, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance & IT, the continued use of the Bury Mead site remains the most cost-effective overall option to NHDC, that Cabinet consider and recommend:-
2.1.1 NHDC enable HCC to enter into a contract from 1st October 2014 for a minimum of three years six months (until 31 March 2018) to manage NHDC residual waste from the Bury Mead Road site as this offers the Council the best environmental and financial option. To achieve this NHDC will need to:-
2.1.1.1 Provide a lease of the Bury Mead Road Site to the successful contractor free of charge for the purpose of management of NHDC residual waste; and
2.1.1.2 Fund any essential works that are required to put the site into a lettable condition prior to the commencement of the lease, up to a maximum as recommended by paragraph 8.10 of the [Part 2] report.
2.1.2 Not to include within the lease to the new contractor a requirement to provide a disposal facility on Sundays for residents, as the site is not deemed as acceptable for a modern disposal facility and result in the site being financially unviable.
2.1.2.1 For signs to be erected at Bury Mead informing residents using the site that the Sunday disposal service will cease from 30th September 2014 and redirecting users to Letchworth or Stevenage. For a programme of communications to residents to be carried out including an article in Outlook magazine, press release and website information.
2.1.3 To note that the terms of the lease not otherwise referred to in this report will be determined by the Strategic Director for Finance, Policy & Governance in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance and IT acting within the existing scheme of delegation.
2.2 That Members note the contents of this report but consider and discuss the issues arising following consideration of the Part 2 report on this matter.
3. REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1 To ensure that such information as is suitable for publication is presented in a Part 1 report.
3.2 To ensure that members are not required to make a decision on the substantive issues before having considered the exempt Part 2 information in light of the critical relevance of that information and the detailed nature of the issues to be considered.
4. ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED
4.1 Alternative options in respect of the Part 2 recommendations are considered in the Part 2 report.
5. CONSULTATION WITH EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS AND WARD MEMBERS
5.1 Summary information is provided in the exempt Part 2 report.
6. FORWARD PLAN
6.1 Consideration of the short to medium term options for residual waste at Bury Mead, Hitchin is a key project under the Living within Our Means priority in the Priorities for the District 2014/15.
7. BACKGROUND
7.1 Hertfordshire County Council are responsible for the disposal of waste in Hertfordshire and NHDC as the collection authority must deliver collected waste to such place as directed by HCC. Historically waste was directed to a landfill site near Holwell, however when this site closed a number of years ago, NHDC were re-directed to the Westmill landfill site near Ware at an additional cost to the District Council. Financially, operationally and from a carbon footprint/ environmental perspective this was not a satisfactory solution, particularly in regard to the Authority’s commitment to green issues and reducing the district’s impact on climate change wherever possible.
7.2 As an alternative to continuing to direct NHDC to Ware, in 2009/10 HCC secured a transport contract for the District’s residual waste using the Bury Mead site as the bulking/transfer facility. The contract was with a third party, who used the Bury Mead Road site for bulking arrangements. This arrangement has successfully been used for many years.
7.3 However HCC’s contract arrangements for the transportation and disposal of residual waste for Hertfordshire collection authorities needed to be retendered for commencement from 1st April 2014. The outcome of the tender exercise was that none of the bidders offered to arrange for collection using the Bury Mead site as there was uncertainty on the future operation of the site
7.4 In the absence of any contractors tendering for NHDC residual waste from Bury Mead HCC have appointed a separate contractor to transfer waste from the Bury Mead site from April 2014 to September 2014 when the existing lease of the site comes to an end. HCC have fully funded these interim arrangements.
8. ISSUES
8.1 HCC and NHDC officers have worked closely together on finding a medium term solution from September 2014 to March 2018. Accepting the current leaseholder of the Bury Mead site intends to surrender their lease at the end of September, NHDC have included the Bury Mead lease within a new contract being let by HCC to manage NHDC’s residual and trade waste. This has encouraged a number of contractors to tender for these works and that is currently being assessed.
Sunday waste disposal service
8.2 In the event that a lease is granted under the HCC transfer contract to the successful bidder, a decision must be made as to whether to require the leaseholder to provide a Sunday waste disposal service. Officers are not proposing to negotiate Sunday Waste Disposal terms with the new contractor for the following reasons:
8.2.1 Financial considerations are covered in the exempt Part 2 report.
8.2.2 The site is too small to provide both a transfer station facility and a safe disposal site for waste brought by residents.
8.2.3 Sorting of waste on site is not permitted by the current Environment Agency permit and due to size restrictions, suitable segregation of waste for recycling would not be possible.
8.2.4 A number of health and safety improvements are required on site if access for the public were to continue.
8.2.5 As is detailed in section 9 of this report, NHDC have no legal obligation to provide any disposal facility of this nature within the district. The current practice of offering a facility at Bury Mead Road on Sundays is considered by officers to be beyond the collection authority remit of NHDC and unacceptable from an environmental, operational and financial perspective. This view is supported by the professional officers responsible for waste disposal in HCC.
8.2.6 There is no evidence to suggest that fly tipping would increase with the closure of the Sunday service at Bury Mead. Most fly tipping occurs when people seek to avoid paying disposal costs and disposal of household waste at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC’s) is still free. The distance from Bury Mead Road to the Letchworth HWRC is 4.5 miles with a 10-15 minute drive time. Stevenage HWRC is 7 miles with a drive time of 15 minutes. Some residents using Bury Mead Road will live significantly nearer to these sites.
8.3 In the event that NHDC’s residual waste currently being sent to Bury Mead were to be transferred directly to an alternative location outside the district, the Bury Mead Road site would become vacant and as a consequence it is foreseen that the Sunday disposal service will cease as no operator will exist to provide a continuation of the service.
Lease to HCC contractor
8.4 NHDC propose to offer a three year six months lease (until 31 March 2018) of the Bury Mead Road site to the successful HCC contractor to mirror the length of the HCC contract. This will enable the contractor to use the Bury Mead Road site to fulfil the terms of the HCC contract.
8.5 Matters relating to the site valuation and proposed rent are considered further in the exempt Part 2 report.
8.6 Officers propose to restrict the permitted use under the lease so that no other commercial activities may be undertaken by the tenant without the consent of the Landlord. In the event that the successful contractor wishes to use the site to carry out any commercial activities then it is intended that consent will only be given in exchange for a commercial rent payment.
Preparing the site for reletting
8.7 Consideration of the issues relating to dilapidations on site are covered in the exempt Part 2 report.
Environmental considerations
8.8 There will be a small negative carbon impact due to the extra mileage undertaken by residents transferring their waste from Hitchin to either Letchworth or Stevenage. As outlined in section 8.2.6 the additional mileage for residents is minimal with residents of Hitchin being approximately 5 miles from the alternative facilities. The additional carbon impact of travel distances would be more than off set by the environmental benefits and carbon reduction associated with recycling this waste at the alternative sites than disposing of it in land fill.
8.9 The provision of the Bury Mead Road site within the HCC contract will also ensure that the carbon impacts of the potential for direct transfer of refuse collection and street sweeping vehicles are mitigated against.
9. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
9.1 Cabinet has within its terms of reference to oversee the provisions of all the Council’s services other than those functions reserved to Council.
9.2 With regard to the continuation of the Sunday waste disposal service, the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990 defines the separate roles of waste collection authorities and waste disposal authorities. Under the provisions of the EPA 1990 the District Council is the collection authority and the County Council is the disposal authority.
9.3 Under S48 of the EPA 1990 the collection authority must deliver for disposal all waste which is collected by the authority to such places as the waste disposal authority for the area directs. Therefore unless provision of a transfer station can be agreed between NHDC and HCC, the District Council must deliver collected waste to any location as directed by HCC.
9.4 S51 of the EPA confirms that it is the duty of the waste disposal authority, not the waste collection authority, to arrange for places to be provided at which persons resident in its area may deposit their household waste. The arrangements made by the waste disposal authority in this regard shall ensure that each place is situated within the area of the authority so as to be reasonably accessible to persons resident in its area. Whilst this duty falls on HCC as opposed to NHDC, officers have made enquires with HCC to ensure that this duty will be met in the event that the Sunday waste disposal service is withdrawn from the Bury Mead site. The County Council has confirmed that for many years, it has fulfilled this statutory requirement within and around Northern Hertfordshire with the Household Waste Recycling Centres at Letchworth, Royston and Stevenage. The use of the Bury Mead Road facility, by residents, on a Sunday has never formed part of the County Council Household Waste Recycling Centre network.