The Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee introduced the Waste Contract report, which was originally due to be discussed in June 2024 but delayed due to the snap General Election and subsequent busy meetings calendar. He explained that some of the original questions put were answered in the question session earlier, but others were responded to in the report.  The Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee drew attention to paragraph 2.6 which referenced the request to hold a full scrutiny review, and this was agreed unanimously at the Environment and Climate Change Committee meeting the previous week, to commence in early August running to October 2024. He said the outcome of the review would be reported to an extraordinary Environment and Climate Change Committee in November 2024. The Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee advised that the public would be invited to engage in the review.

The Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee said he hoped the review would get to the bottom of why exactly things had gone wrong and ensure that the same mistakes were not repeated in the future. He paid tribute to the hard work of officers who had tried hard to fix issues, often working late at night and weekends and he shared officers’ frustrations over repeated issues not being resolved by fixes suggested.  The Chair of the Environment and Climate Committee said he had personally received over 1300 emails on the subject and spent up to 300 hours since late March 2024 dealing with the topic and he knew that many officers had spent significantly more time. 

Finally, the Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee said he was sincerely sorry to every single resident who felt let down by the poor service the contractors had delivered over the previous four months, and he hoped the answers provided that evening, and from the scrutiny review went some way to soften the levels of anger and frustration that many residents felt.

In seconding the recommendation, the Vice-Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee reserved her right to speak.

The Leader of the Conservative Group, Councillor Lloyd Bowen said the service had been a failure. He highlighted poor communications, incorrect website information and failure, lack of response, incorrect data, route changes, repeated missed bin and food waste collections, vehicle failure and staffing issues. He said the late apologies were pathetic and the administration were responsible, yet he had seen members of the coalition criticising the service. The Leader of the Conservative Group questioned the scrutiny and said that the working group should have been reporting back to the Committee. He gave examples of residents in his area who had received a poor service and said whilst he welcomed the scrutiny review it should have been set up much earlier.

The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group agreed with the comments of the Leader of the Conservative Group and said there had been a catastrophic failure. He welcomed the review and, referring to information in the report, asked whether garden waste subscribers had been informed their contracts would be extended?

Members were invited to speak, and made comments including:

·         Highlighted the 40,000 complaints received, drawing attention that issues with the website meant that some complaints were not received;

·         gave examples of poor service received by residents;

·         paid tribute to the hard working SBC staff;

·         poor communication between the Contractors and SBC officers and with public;

·         trust needed to be built again;

·         urgent action from the administration was required to provide improvements to the service for residents;

·         referred to the unacceptable waste and litter left in streets;

·         spoke of the disruption to vulnerable residents;

·         the cleansing team had been amazing; the management of Suez and leadership of the Council had failed;

·         the Suez crews were also frustrated;

·         raised the financial impact to Suez paying staff overtime to catch up and the financial impact that might have on the Council;

·         the inbalance of pay between the crews working for Maidstone, Ashford and Swale and whether that might lead to strike action;

·         a simpler street system for crews was needed;

·         what would happen if Suez decided to terminate the contract?;

·         needed to ensure that proper processes of reporting were carried out and to look at where the Council could make improvements;

·         criticised the opposition for not attending the waste contract working groups during the setting up of the contract, and for making suggestions for improvements too late;

·         the introduction of the computerised system for Suez staff had caused the issues and should have been a gradual introduction;

·         spoke in support of Suez staff who were working hard in exceptional circumstances but being unfairly targeted by the public;

·         referred to the breakdown of vehicles and the increase in staff sickness;

·         there had been a gradual improvement;

·         there was no excuse for abuse of SBC or Suez staff;

·         spoke of the high number of bins not being collected due to contaminated bins which impacted on recycling;

·         spoke of the issues between senior and junior managers and the Suez workforce and the Union’s involvement;

·         said that the workforce had not been properly trained;

·         raised concern on the mental health impact on Suez employees; and

·         said the gradual reduction of staff over the years had impacted on the amount of work existing staff had to carry out and hoped this would also be looked at as part of the review.

Councillor Mike Baldock proposed an amendment to the recommendation ‘to congratulate and thank the hard working staff’.

This was seconded by Councillor Mike Whiting and on being put to the vote, was agreed.

The Vice-Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee thanked Members for their comments and reminded Members that the scrutiny review was cross party and she welcomed input. She drew attention that it was a big undertaking to take part in a trial authority contract and there had been a gradual improvement. The Vice-Chair was critical that some Members had made the issue political, as residents expected all councillors to work together to achieve the best outcome, and residents deserved a decent service.

In summing up, the Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee said the contract was agreed by the previous coalition in December 2022.  He drew attention that the outsourcing of services was introduced by the Conservative Government in the 1980’s and subsequent reduction in funding had led to the reduction in staff to respond. He said he looked forward to serious, thorough questions and answers being found at the review, so that the Council would be stronger in the future.

Resolved:

(1)  That the contents of the report be noted and the hard working cleansing staff be thanked.