Agenda item

To deal with written questions which councillors may wish to put to the Chair of the Council, a Lead Councillor on the Cabinet or the Chair of any committee or sub-committee in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12.

Councillor Carter submitted two written questions to the Leader of the Council in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12 as set out below:

Question 1

“Along with my fellow Green Councillors, whilst we recognise and applaud the significant improvements the Council has made to our recycling rates, we wonder when we are going to set ourselves new and higher targets for recycling?  I note that Wales is aiming for a target of 70% recycled waste by 2025, and that in England there is a national commitment to meet a waste directive recycling target of 50% by 2020 – which is in only one year’s time.

Could the leader let me know what he will be doing to ensure we set and then meet a higher target for our food waste and recycling? “

Question 2

“As reported in the Independent and elsewhere, it seems that the Lewes job centre is no longer making referrals to the food banks for those in need. The DWP has given a national directive that the Lewes job centre has interpreted as meaning that they can no longer refer people to the food banks (although they will signpost them to other organisations to get a referral). This is really difficult as the job centre is often the authority in the best position to assess someone's financial need, and food banks need to have people properly referred. People who are already in need are being put into a really tricky and stressful situation as they have to then try and get a referral from another organisation such as the CAB who will not have as good an overview of their financial needs.

Whilst this situation is clearly not under the District Council's control, there are actions the council could take to help, such as discussions with the job centre or enabling council staff to help with food bank referrals.  

Please could the leader let me know what the council can do to help those residents in need access food banks?

(Report from the Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-banks-universal-credit-dwp-jobcentres-uk-a8769921.html)”

Councillor Carter had had to leave the meeting prior to asking the questions in person.  However, the Leader of the Council agreed to provide the following written responses to the questions:

Response to Question 1:

“The new co-mingled dry mixed recycling (DMR) service is performing very well. Collections of DMR have increased dramatically since the Council replaced the old system of boxes and bags with a single wheelie bin.  (DMR/Dry) Recycling rates for 2017/18 were 19.3% but now stand at 29.7%.  Food and garden waste collected add just over a further 10 percentage points to the total recycling.

The Food Waste Service is being heavily promoted by the new Waste and Recycling Engagement Coordinator working with schools and community groups; the offer of free caddy liners has been very popular and reminder training to collection operatives about the importance of collecting food waste is ongoing.  For January 2018 the food waste tonnage stood at 82.34tns, 2.89% of the total recycling.  For January 2019 the food waste tonnage stands at 100.78tns, being 3.61% of the total recycling.

The Green Waste Service continues to grow with a total of 4,578 customers (to date 18.2.19). The introduction in November 2018 of the half price second bin has been well received with over 30 existing customers taking advantage of the offer.  For 2017/18 total Green Waste collected stood at 682.130tns being 2.47% of total recycling.  For 2018/19 to date (18.2.19) Green waste stands at 1,495.29tns being 5.81% of total recycling.

The Council is making good progress towards the 50% target particularly with:

·         The well-received co-mingled recycling service

·         Maintaining  both the steady growth of new customers joining the Food Waste Service and the number of customers staying with the service provides an estimated 2% increase in tonnage from 2017/18

Maintaining both the steady growth of new customers joining the Green Waste Service and the number of customers staying with the service provides an estimated 3% increase in tonnage from 2018/19.”

Response to Question 2:

“DWP has re-issued its guidance to its staff which is that they can signpost people to Foodbanks but may not make referrals.

However, foodbanks can take referrals from a range of agencies that are in a position to make appropriate referrals based on the knowledge they have. This includes the Council’s own housing staff as well as health workers, social care staff and advice agencies. The foodbanks themselves may have different rules about referrals and how they issue food. However, the general principle is that the foodbanks use a referral system to ensure that the people to whom they issue food are those with a financial need for this, and have access to the advice and practical help they need to address any underlying issues.”