Delabole Slate September 2017

Notice from Councillor Dominic Fairman
Rubbish and bins are an issue that affects every
household in the county, and so one of the most important
issues that Cornwall Council will be looking at over the
next few months is the renewal of the waste and
recycling collection contract that is currently with Biffa and
is due to end in 2020.
Papers outlining the various options were presented to
Cabinet in July and as a result the Neighbourhood
Overview and Scrutiny Committee (of which I am vicechair)
has been tasked with making recommendations to
Cabinet in November.
I will be leading a group of five Councillors who will be
holding various private and public inquiry days during
September and October with a view to shaping the
committees recommendations. This is quite a
responsibility as our service is significantly larger in both
area and number of households that most others in
England.
Currently we have a very high 92% satisfaction rate with
our residents for refuse collection and an equally
impressive 83% satisfaction with our recycling services.
However underlying this is an extremely poor record in
recycling - just 24% on the doorstep and only rising to 36%
once you include the figures from the Household Waste
and Recycling Centres. This is against a national target of
50% by 2020. Clearly we are not going to get anywhere
near this.
The current system, as you will all be well aware, consist
of weekly collections of black bags and a fortnightly
recycling collection with specific containers for each type.
Some of the different options that have been used by other
local authorities are; fortnightly bin collections, mixed
recycling bins, separate food waste collections and the
introduction of wheelie bins.
All of these various options have a different cost
implication and in addition we have a long term contract
to supply waste to our Energy Recovery incinerator at St
Dennis. Whilst this plant does produce electricity and a
useful aggregate by-product, this is not
considered recycling and so cannot be counted towards
any target.
Many of the inquiry sessions will be held at New County
Hall and open to the public, but as ever I value our local
view and so please do not hesitate to get in touch with me
about this issue.
Dominic Fairman
Cornwall Councillor
St Teath, St Breward & Delabole
dominic.fairman@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
07939 122303
DEADLINE FOR
OCTOBER SLATE
10th SEPTEMBER