Waste/Rubbish

Cornwall Council and SITA sign the deal

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 14:34 Thursday, March 21, 2013
Posted in: Waste/Rubbish. 3 comments

The Portfolio Holder, Lance Kennedy, who is the Councillor responsible for waste, today sent a letter to his fellow Cornwall Councillors telling the PFI contract between the Council and SITA has been signed.

The letter is as follows:

Dear Members,

I am writing to inform you that the Council and SITA UK have today signed the revised project plan for the integrated waste management contract.

The 30 year PFI contract is to manage the treatment and disposal of all of Cornwall Council’s household waste and recycling.  Key to the contract is the design, build, finance and operation of an energy-from-waste facility in St Dennis with a capacity of up to 240,000 tonnes per year, which will generate electricity for the equivalent of around 21,000 homes.

As you are aware the contract was originally signed in October 2006. However, following delays in getting planning permission to build an energy-from-waste facility a contract variation was required.  This has now been signed, with the funding for the Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre project being provided by a range of banks. 

 This facility, which has planning permission and an Environmental Permit, is expected to be operational in 2016.

Dog Sh** and FPNs

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 13:48 Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Posted in: Dog Fowling, Waste/Rubbish. 5 comments

I still fail to understand why so many dog owners find it impossible to pick up their dogs mess. Things have slightly improved in Porthleven, but it is still a problem. Porthleven is not alone, as this problem plagues Cornwall, too. I know dog owners have contacted me to complain about the issue, but I still do not think the amount of dog-waste not being picked up is the work of one or two dogs.

Cornwall Council’s Environmental Enforcement Team has had some success in catching people who think it is ok not to pick up after their dog leaves a deposit. Though I have to say, the number of people caught at given a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) is rather small.

For the following years here are the number of FPN issued, and fines collected:

  • 2009/2010: 55 FPN issued – 50 fines collected totalling £2,500
  • 2010/2011: 94 FPN issued – 86 fines collected totalling £4,330
  • 1/4/20011 – 31/3/2012: 24 FPN issued – no data on fines collected, or the amount as yet available
  • 1/4/2012 – 25/11/2-12: 29 FPN issued – no data on fines collected, or the amount as yet available

So, in a three-year period, 202 FPN have been issued for people not picking up their dogs mess. However, the problem is you have to catch people to be able to issue a FPN. The public could help with this; as if they witness someone not picking up after their dog, they could act as a witness for the local authority (contact me if you want more details on how this works).

Cornwall Council will also be (re)launching a campaign in the next few weeks to ask for help from its citizen in trying to address the problem of dog owners who do fail to clean up after their dogs. It may help address this unsightly and dangerous problem.

The full report is HERE

Cornwall Council given £1.56 Million to help recycle

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 9:29 Monday, November 26, 2012
Posted in: Waste/Rubbish. 2 comments

The Government has awarded Cornwall Council £1.56 million that will enable the council to collected mixed plastics as part of the kerb-side recycling collection. This is great news, as from April (estimated start date) 2013 all plastics apart from Tetra packs can now be recycled.

It is estimated implementation of this will result in an extra 9000 tonnes of recycling collected. Furthermore, it not only that kerb-side that will see an improvement, as the HWRC (dumps) will be able to take more items that can be better recycled.

Sadly Tetra packs will not be included, as it is not cost-effective to do so, especially as those packs have to be shipped to Sweden to be recycled!

PIP Cleans Preachers Steps

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 10:01 Monday, October 15, 2012
Posted in: PiP, Porthleven, Waste/Rubbish. 1 comment

Pride in Porthleven (PIP) took part in a little clean up in Porthleven. The area targeted was a set of steps called Preachers Steps. This was selected because nearby residents had contacted me to raise concerns this was in an untidy state. After 40 minutes of work, all the rubbish was removed, and bushes cut back.

The next planned meeting of PIP is set for the 10th November at 11 am. The plan is to tidy up Peverell Steps and Chapel Terrace. If you want to take part, contact me, or Damelza Storbeck for more details.

A few of the PIP Gang

The entrance/exit now clear of overgrowth

Before

After

Porthleven to trial seagull proof bags

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 9:10 Friday, September 14, 2012
Posted in: Porthleven, Porthleven Town Council, Waste/Rubbish. 9 comments

A trial is about to take place in Porthleven to provide certain streets with a free seagull proof bag. This is something that I have been working on for months, and I am now very pleased it is starting. These bags will hold two or three black bag and I am told are completely seagull proof if used correctly.

The town council is fully supportive of this trial and has helped me decide on the streets who will be part of the trial. 300 houses will be taking part, and I hope if the trial is successful, these bags could be in use throughout Cornwall. However, they might not be free, as someone will have to pay for them.

One of the ideas is Cornwall Council use its buying power to buy 1000′s of them, they can then sell them on at costs to the town and parish council’s who could either give them away for free, recover the basic costs, or add a small percentage onto the cost of the bags to help pay for other green projects.

I still don’t understand why people won’t just buy a cheap dustbin. The do come in various sizes, so even if you have a limited space to store the bin I am sure there is a size for you. Maybe these easy to fold-away bags will overcome people’s reluctance to buy a dustbin.

The area that will be included in the trial are:

Thomas Street, Thomas Terrace, Holmans Place and Bickford Crescent

Detail on how the trial will work will be delivered to those areas taking part in the next few days (week).

 

Cory and the Waste Contract

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 10:21 Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Posted in: Waste/Rubbish. 2 comments

A third briefing on Cornwall Council’s waste contract with Cory took place at County Hall on Monday. As we all know the implementation of this contract has not gone according to plan. In some areas this plan has had more issues and has not worked at all.  The Portfolio Holder for this department, Cllr Steve Double, Cory’s MD and Head of Communications, and various senior Cornwall Council officers were on hand to explain the current position and answer any question from the Councillor’s present.

It is now Day-36 of the contract and collections are still being missed.  Out of around 470,000 weekly collections roughly 0.7% are still being missed. This is around 2200 households. As you can see these missed collections have been greatly reduced and Cornwall Council and Cory should be congratulated on this.

Another area that is still having trouble is the delivery of the recycling containers. Today, we were told by the Cory MD this will be sorted very soon. I asked if more of these containers could be located at the One Stop Shops (OOS) as these supplies run out in a few days. The answer was yes, with more containers being placed in the OSS by the end of this week.

The last area that is also having trouble is the new green garden waste containers. Councillors were told today this hold-up is in parts because the scheme has been so successful. So far over 13,000 residents have taken up this scheme. However this has led to a backlog of around 2000 undelivered containers. Cory said they are delivering roughly 300 per day, but they are receiving 80 new requests. In the meantime, if you have subscribed but still have not received your container, you can just place all your garden waste in a black bag and it will be collected.

It was also good to hear that Cornwall Council has from the 1st May applied any contract penalties  a per the contract. I don’t know how much this is, but any financial penalties on a contract will not be good for Cory.

 

Porthleven’s Missing Recycling Bags

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 10:01 Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Posted in: Recycling, Waste/Rubbish. Leave a Comment

I know many people have not yet received their new recycling bags. This issue was raised at today’s Cornwall Council Cabinet, and the Portfolio Holder gave a statement that could go some way to address this issue.

Those assembled were told those who were missed would be getting theirs delivered in the next few weeks. However, as much as this sound great, how will they know who have been missed? I say this because in Porthleven the delivery of these bags and boxes was a little ad-hoc. So it will be interesting to see how this will be accomplished.

The good news is a limited number of recycling bag and boxes will be available in the One Stop Shops. You could also ring the council and asked for either your initial issue, or if you have been lucky enough to receive some, ask for more. I would suggest these two options would be probably the best way to ensure you get the bags and boxes.

Failing that, if those within my Electoral Division are still having difficulties, get in touch and I will sort it for you.