PEMBROKESHIRE ​COUNTY COUNCIL’S Cabinet has unanimously supported the move to a three-weekly waste collection service.

Cabinet members met on Monday (Mar 19) to discuss the changes with a number saying they were originally against the changes but that they had seen that the new service would work.

The changes will mean that each household will have its residual waste collected on a three-weekly basis but recyclable waste will be collected on a weekly basis.

Residents will have the opportunity to purchase boxes for glass, paper and cardboard and a separate bag for plastic and cans.

Absorbent hygiene products will also be collected on a two-weekly basis and will be provided on application.
The Council has also held a lengthy consultation on the waste service and has hosted a number of Facebook live sessions to discuss a number of issues that people had.

Cabinet Member for Environment and Welsh Language, Cllr Cris Tomos​,​ said: “It’s been a long journey, over a year and a half now, since the waste working group met and went around Wales looking at other developments in other local authorities. From that working group and scrutiny there has been a considerable amount of consultation and we’re looking at the full conclusion of all that research and development.

“We’re also faced with an imminent need to review our fleet of waste collection vehicles so it is very opportune now that we do review the best method going forward by considering also that Welsh Government are putting forward quite stringent collection levels that we have to hit recycling rates and by 2019/20 Pembrokeshire and all counties in Wales will need to hit a 64% recycling rate.

“If we do not do that we will be fined £200 a tonne, and with our 70,000 tonnage of waste it would lead to, for every 1% below that target, a £140,000 fine and hitting 3 or 4% below that could result in a half a million pound fine for the authority and at this time of tightening budgets we do not want to spend our money on fines.

“We are proposing that we continue with the collection of the weekly recycling but enhancing that with glass collections moving from 2-weeks to 1-weekly, continuing with food waste but also looking at a more segregated kerb-side sorting of our waste and currently we have the orange bag and we would see that orange bag replaced with two collection plastic boxes and an additional bag so we are asking the residents, households of Pembrokeshire undertake a more robust weekly segregation of our waste.”

Council Leader David Simpson said he could see that the three-weekly system ‘could work’ for the large majority of people but said he was concerned that the bags could be left on doorsteps and blown away or they could be mixed up with other people’s bags and that he didn’t want seven or eight bags flying around every day.

Head of Environment and Civil Contingencies, Mr Richard Brown said: “There wouldn’t be an intention that a bag would just be left, the top box stacks on top of the bottom box and there is a lid on the top box to stop everything blowing around, when it’s emptied they can stack back inside each other and the bag could go in the top box so it won’t go anywhere.”

Cllr Bob Kilmister said he was concerned that people would be paying for the boxes and paying over the top of that to allow the council to recover the costs of them saying: “It doesn’t sit very easily with me because I don’t think it is the right thing to do.”

Cllr Tomos said it would depend on how many households took up the trolley system as to whether or not there would be additional costs.

Richard Brown added that he would expect them to come in under £30 a unit but that it could be £45 if there were less people taking up the service.

Cabinet members also debated changing Absorbert Hygiene products to a weekly collection but Cllr Paul Miller said there was no evidence to suggest that the change was required.

Cllr Miller went on to say that he had long been ‘sceptic’ of proposals to reduce residual waste collections to three-weekly and that it was something he had been ‘dead against’.

However, he paid tribute to the officers and councillors who had worked on the process saying: “This has been one of the best policy changes we’ve undertaken and I mean that in the way we have gone about this.

“This has been a really good engagement process with all members and I have learnt a lot, my knowledge of the industry has improved dramatically and I have genuinely gone from being against the change to being a big supporter.

“The reason that I am so supportive of these changes today is that the evidence from the consultants supporting us clearly shows that limiting residents’ residual collections is about the best way to change resident behaviour in favour of more recycling.

“We anticipate significant improvements in recycling rates as a result of these changes and that’s got to be a positive thing for everyone, including the future generations who will inherit the environment we leave them.”

Cllr Kilmister also moved an amendment that the words ‘full cost recovery’ be removed from the first recommendation and that it be replaced with ‘at a cost to be agreed’ and that the decision on that be delegated to the Cabinet member responsible for the waste service.
Cabinet members unanimously supported the recommendations.