Council admits ‘complacency’, reveals recycling changes save £105k

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Council chiefs have admitted complacency over the new recycling and refuse collection routes roll-out in March.

At a joint meeting of Powys County Council’s Governance and Audit Committee and Economy, Residents and Communities (ERC) Scrutiny Committee, councillors and lay independent members forensically examined the reasons why the change in collection had been so problematic.

This follows the shambolic roll out of new collection routes from March which has seen rubbish and recycling left uncollected for days on end, causing anger amongst residents.

WRAP Cymru have reviewed the change and produced a report – which was in front of the joint-committee members.

It was revealed that the route optimisation was a bid to save £105,000 by the council.

The saving of £52,500 over two years had been included as a cost’s savings proposal in the 2023/2024 budget.

The joint meeting was chaired by Lynne Hamilton who is the chairwoman of the Governance and Audit Committee.

Mrs Hamilton said: “Was there a formal project plan and governance arrangement to go with that or not?”

Head of Highways, Transport and Recycling, John Forsey, said there was a project group set up to manage the changes.

Mrs Hamilton asked if the project group worked to a clear brief and business plan to deliver the objectives.

Waste and Recycling Senior Manager, Ashley Collins, said: “We did a route optimisation back in 2018 which went far more smoothly with a lot less input than this time, so I think that made us a tad complacent in terms of how it would work.

“The project management process could have been much tighter we had a couple of project officers working on this three or four years ago doing all the donkey work on it.

“There was a project team involving the area managers, myself, the data management and communication officer working weekly.”

Ahead of the changes, all households in Powys received an information pack through the post outlining the changes and providing recycling tips.

Mr Collins said: “There was a long lead in time for that, we had to get everything ready by the beginning of January.

“We did make the assumption that the vehicles would be ready by the end of February and that didn’t turn out to be the case, we had a few that weren’t modified in time.”

The electric vehicles also didn’t arrive in time and Mr Collins explained that hiring similar vehicles at short notice proved to be difficult.

“There were assumptions made as we had to get the publicity and we wanted things to settle down before Easter,” said Mr Collins.

Mrs Hamilton said: “It sounds to me that as though the critical path was driven by the fact that the communication material had been ordered and a date set for its distribution.”

Mr Forsey said that for as long as he was in his role there “will not be another route optimisation exercise”.

“But we will be looking at things route by route to make sure things are balanced,” said Mr Forsey.

The joint committee will come up with a number of recommendations so that the council can avoid similar project problems in the future.