To receive the minutes of the Behaviour Change and Waste Task and Finish Group meeting held on 21January 2019.

The Chair enquired if any analysis had been undertaken to compare the cost incurred to remove fly tipping compared to reducing or removing the charge at recycling centres for commercial waste.

The Strategic Lead: Waste, Recycling and Street Cleansing Services advised that an update on this would be provided following a period of mobilisation from 1 June 2019 as the new Greater Manchester Combined Authority waste disposal contract had been awarded.

Decision

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2019.

The Group will hear from a range of invited residents groups from across the city to learn of their experience in tackling waste in their community and neighbourhoods.

To help inform the deliberations and the final recommendations of the Group, Members had invited a number of residents groups to attend this meeting so that they could hear of their experiences in addressing waste and litter in their respective communities. This meeting provided an opportunity for Members to hear from; discuss with and share experiences of what residents had done to overcome any barriers they had faced to improving their neighbourhoods.

The Group welcomed a number of invited guests who had agreed to attend the meeting. The Chair invited each guest in turn to address the Members.

Claire Benson, Littermum and Litter Ambassador stated that she became passionate about tackling litter in her local community as she was appalled by the levels of this in her area. She established a Twitter group to connect with other local community groups and to highlight the issue and galvanise action to address general litter and litter associated with the construction industry. She further described that she had worked within her apartment block to engage with other residents to support recycling activity in her block, reporting that in the previous 6 months recycling had increased by 29%. She recommended that this could be replicated across all apartment blocks by engaging with property management companies to have a dedicated tenant/occupier recycling champion or building manager to support and drive this agenda. She further commented that this could also be supported by appropriate information regarding recycling arrangements being issued to tenants when they initially moved into an apartment. Members and guests commented that that this was feasible in apartment blocks with established, long term occupants, however the challenge arose in those apartments with a high turnover of tenants.   

The Executive Member for Neighbourhoods stated that he welcomed the increased recycling rates reported by Ms Benson, noting that this was a very significant achievement. He reported that he acknowledged the comment regarding the role of a recycling champion in apartment blocks and the positive impact this could have and consideration would be given as to how this could be progressed and rolled out further, with thought given to a possible incentive scheme for tenants to become a champion in their block.

The Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration acknowledged the comment regarding the challenge due to turnover of tenants and stated that the housing market needed to be flexible, especially in the city centre however she had recently visited a new build site that was in development that would be let to the private rented sector, and the intention of this development would be to offer longer tenancies that would contribute to creating communities within blocks.

A Member further commented that the challenge had been to retrofit recycling facilities into existing apartment blocks and noted the progress that had been made to address this.   

In regard to construction litter Ms Benson advised that she had actively engaged with contractors to get them to enter into a litter pledge that committed contractors to undertake regular sweeps to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

To review the Terms of Reference and work programme of the Task and Finish Group.

The Task and Finish Group considered the terms of reference and future work programme and were invited to make any amendments.

Members noted that the Group would be re-established in the new municipal year and the date for the next meeting would be agreed, in consultation with the Chair and Members would be informed.

Decision

To approve the work programme and terms of reference.