NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL

19 July 2023

STATEMENT OF CHAIR OF THE TRANSPORT, ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT AND ENTERPRISE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

The Transport, Economy, Environment and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee has a remit that includes the following:

· Transport and communications infrastructure of all kinds, however owned or provided, and how the transport needs of the community are met;

· Supporting business, economic development and regeneration, the work of the Local Enterprise Partnership and helping people develop their skills, including lifelong learning;

· Sustainable development, climate change strategy, countryside management, waste management, environmental conservation and enhancement flooding and cultural issues.

The Committee last met on 25 May 2023 in the Council Chamber of the Civic Centre at Stone Cross.

Service Harmonisation - Waste and Recycling Collections

The committee were joined by members of the Transition (LGR) O&S Committee to receive a presentation that looked at future options for harmonising the waste and recycling collection service and the choices for the introduction of food waste collections. Following LGR, there is now the opportunity to look at the whole service and harmonise the process across North Yorkshire into a single model.

An overview of the current waste collection services was given of the three current approaches across the county: fully comingled, twin-stream and full kerbside sort, followed by summary of the various options for future service harmonisation:

· Co-mingled with no food waste

· Multi stream with no food waste

· Twin stream with no food waste

· Twin stream with food waste

· Twin stream with food waste and revised frequencies

All of the options set out the expected frequency of collection, recycling rate, carbon (tonnes of CO2e) and the expected financial cost.

It was noted that whichever option is proceeded with, adaptations such as smaller wheeled bins and bag collections could be implemented to assist residents if special circumstances are required. It was felt that targeted stakeholder engagement was key to the successful implementation of major service changes in hard to reach areas.

Topics discussed in the Q&A that followed included:

· The bins currently used are partially made of recycled plastic and are recyclable. Members wanted this to be publicised more. Members also questioned whether other materials had been looked into and officers reported that the procurement process would look into alternative options.

· To improve the aesthetics of an area, could communal, rather than individual household bins be used?

· Issues concerning the lane end collection policy were discussed. It was reported that these would be looked at on a case-by-case basis and that a balance between providing a service for residents and protecting the waste management crews needs to be found.

· Allerton Waste Recovery Park has the capability to recover garden waste that has been put into the household waste bin. However, it is still better to use a garden waste bin as the organic waste can then be recycled more efficiently.

· Volunteer networks are introducing community composting schemes which benefit those households that don’t have garden waste bins.

· The current fleet of waste collection vehicles cannot be retrofitted with the food waste collection pods and so a new fleet would be required. This would coincide with the waste vehicle replacement programme.

· The vehicles used in the options presented to Members would most likely be internal combustion engines (ICE) as the electric technology is not yet suitable for the geography of the area. Electric, hybrid and hydrogen alternatives have been investigated and will continue to be considered.

The points made by members were taken onboard by officers in developing next steps with the waste and recycling service harmonisation. Before any decision is made, a public consultation will take place and this is estimated to be in 2025, so the committee will be closely involved in following this area of work along with LGR Transition O&S Committee as the process develops.

Climate Change Strategy Consultation Results

A report on the public consultation of the North Yorkshire Council climate change strategy was given by Jos Holmes, Climate Change Policy Officer and Adam Vaughan, Climate and Environmental Projects Officer. It was reported that the public consultation exercise received over 1500 responses, with 1530 through the ‘Let’s Talk Climate’ online platform and 38 more detailed written responses from organisations, local councils and individuals. It was noted that alongside the strategy document, a climate change action plan is also being developed to focus on the delivery of the key priorities within the climate change strategy.

Topics discussed in the Q&A that followed the presentation included:

· The methodology of the strategy and the consultation exercise was commended.

· Members suggested that the strategy could be improved by ensuring that the definition of net zero is made clearer and that the climate change programmes of the former borough, county and district councils are integrated into the new strategy.

· Members raised a number of areas around public transport that could be improved, in order to incentivise it as an alternative to using the car, for example lobbying to extend the £2 cap for bus fares, introducing bus lanes and lobbying for contactless tap-in for buses.

· It is proposed that the climate change strategy, once approved, will be reviewed every 6 months by the committee and will be refreshed every 2 years.

Following the questions to officers and debate, it was proposed that the report be noted but the at the strategy once revised be circulated to members of the Transport, Economy, Environment and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee to provide comments on the document before going to the Executive in July. This informal meeting took place on 28 June via Teams and was attended by 11 members of the committee, to give them the opportunity to make comments and suggestions to enhance the final strategy document.

Work Programme

Under the work programme item, a topic raised for discussion at future meetings and mid-cycle briefings included air quality, to explain (i) how we currently measure air quality and how we can measure it in the future, (ii) whether LGR is an opportunity to change the way we review air quality and (iii) how we compare to other local authorities.

The next meeting of the committee is set to take place on 10 July 2023, to consider reports on the performance of NY Highways, the improvement and maintenance activity of National Highways, the Strategic Transport Plan of Transport for the North under consultation and the draft North Yorkshire Plan for Economic Growth.

COUNCILLOR DAVID STAVELEY

CHAIR, TRANSPORT, ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT AND ENTERPRISE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

30 June 2023