To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Coppinger, Pryer and Sharp.

To receive declarations of interests from Members of the Panel in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

None.

To note the Part I minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 30 January 2018 be approved.

Opening remarks by the Chairman on the Panel’s role.

The Chairman welcomed the Panel and stated that changes were happening all the time, and the Energy Manager was working on the next Energy and Water Strategy, ensuring bills were kept as low as possible. The Borough was always looking to upgrade technology as and when it could.

By the Principal Commissioning Officer (Sue Fox).

Sue Fox, Senior Project Manager gave an update on the Borough’s pool cars and electric vehicle charging points. She stated a report went to Cabinet in September 2017 which looked at transferring out the current pool cars and reducing the number of vehicles in the fleet and changing them to electric or hybrid vehicles. The council were trying to encourage more members of staff to use the pool cars. There were currently 13 petrol Mini’s in the fleet on a three year lease with an annual mileage of 10k miles per year per car; the lease was in its final year but the cars were averaging just 7k miles per year. The Senior Project Manager had carried out some analysis on the type of trip and length of trip and where the cars were kept. She added that she was looking at potentially making them available for public use.

The Senior Project Manager stated she had been looking at different models of delivery and hoping to reduce the size of the fleet. She said it would be advisable to maintain four of the 10 petrol cars due to some trips being carried out that were very long distant and the average range of an electric vehicle was 100 miles. The Senior Project Manager was looking at hybrid models which had a petrol generator which gave double the range; the cars did not have two engines like other hybrid models.

Looking at electric charging points, the Senior Project Manager said she was looking at potential locations. There could be four charging points at the Town Hall in the North Yard and four points at the tinkers Lane Depot.

The Council’s current car pool contract was with Alpha City; they were only able to provide a BMW i3 with or without the range extender but, they had the capability for a car club so that the public could use the cars in the evenings and at weekends. One issue for the car club was insurance. The Council’s current insurance only covered staff using the vehicles and not the public. That would need to be managed and a solution agreed. The other issue with running a car club was where the cars would be left when not being used. The Town Hall would be fine but, not the North yard.

The charging points would be for Council use so they would not need pay as you go technology for that usage. The Senior Project Manager had also been looking at charging points for charging public vehicles on the street. There were already a couple of charging points installed at Hines Meadow car park which were pay as you go to charge. She added it was very difficult to get the electricity feed to the charging points if they were to be installed in the North Yard.

The Senior Project Manager was in talks with providers that could potentially provide a car club scheme. One of those providers was Enterprise that already ran a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 115.

By the Waste Manager (Naomi Markham).

Naomi Markham, Waste Strategy Manager gave Members a brief update which included the following key points:

Ø  Food waste:

o   The Council ran a campaign in 2016 which focused on food waste and since then, figures have been maintained in the amount of food waste recycled.

o   In 2015, 170 tonnes of food waste had been processed. This rose to 272 tonnes in 2017

o   The team were supplying the libraries with food waste bags.

o   The team were on target to increase food waste being collected in 2018.

Ø  Textiles:

o   The Council relaunched the scheme in 2017.

o   Sacks were introduced for residents to put their unwanted textiles in.

o   In October 2016, seven to eight tonnes of textiles were collected per month.

o   In November 2017, 18 tonnes of textiles were collected with 10 tonnes collected in December 2017, 16 tonnes collected in January and 12 tonnes collected in February 2018.

o   Residents were now aware of the service and could recycle the stuff they could not take to charity shops.

Ø  Contamination:

o   Residents were confused over what could be recycled and what should not be recycled.

o   Nappies were becoming more of a problem

o   Shiny gift wrap and polystyrene were among the items that could not be recycled

o   In recent weeks, the recycling collection team were putting stickers on bins which showed a list of items that could not be put into recycling bins.

The Waste Strategy Manager confirmed the Council received approximately £40 per tonne of recycled textiles.

Martin Fry commented that biodegradable food waste bags were no longer available through the Council. The Waste Strategy Manager confirmed they could be bought from a supermarket but, the Council was still supplying plastic bags. The reason the Council was still using plastic bags was due to the way the food waste was processed. It was an anaerobic process and the biodegradable bags were not suitable for the machinery. The plastic bags were being recycled once they were emptied of food waste. Councillor Werner enquired how much recycling was rejected due to contamination. The Waste Strategy Manager responded that no recycling was rejected but, approximately 14% of recycling was contamination which was sorted at plant and removed; the 14% that was rejected was not the Borough’s targeted waste. Councillor Werner stated that other Councils were running a campaign ‘if in doubt, leave it out’. The Waste Strategy Manager said that was something she could look into.

The Waste Strategy Manager confirmed that the 14% of contamination found in recycling was put back into waste. When inputting data flow, her team input the full waste flow which included rejected recycled waste material. The Chairman stated she was impressed by the level of detail on recycling and waste. Councillor Werner requested a monthly spreadsheet with an itemised list of what had been collected which went back for the last few years. The Waste Strategy Manager agreed she would send Councillor Werner the information.

The Waste Strategy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 116.

By the Energy Reduction Manager (Michael Potter).

Water Refilling and Fountain

Michael Potter, Energy Manager provided Members with an update on energy reduction which and stated with regards to water refilling and fountains, the Energy Manager had been in contact with a refilling organisation that were running a nationwide scheme (www.refill.org.uk); Refill.org.uk explained the Council could set up its own sites and use their app but the Council could increase water consumption due to the scheme. The Chairman stated at the previous meeting, Laxmi had mentioned installing a water fountain on the High Street in Maidenhead but, it needed to be a fountain that could refill a bottle as well as drink straight from. She suggested the Energy Manager look into that to see what could be provided and also, encourage businesses to allow customers and passers-by to refill their bottles at their establishments. She was sure that a lot of businesses were already doing so but, the more that offered to do it, the better. Councillor Tong suggested asking businesses to sign up to a scheme where they could place a sticker in their windows letting the public know they could refill their bottles there. She added one water fountain in the Town was great but, getting businesses to put a sign in their window was more cost effective.

The Energy Manager explained to Members that there was a public toilet with a drinking tap in the Town Centre of Maidenhead. There were also a lot of cafes in the Borough he could talk to so that customers could fill up their bottles. The Chairman commented that was a good place to start and requested feedback from the Energy Manager on how successful the scheme was and how many businesses had signed up.

The Energy Manager stated the feeling was not to install a fountain in the High Street in Maidenhead due to cost of installation and maintenance. It was suggested to have it installed somewhere indoors if there was to be one. However, if businesses on the High Street were allowing people to refill in their establishments, that negated the need for a fountain at all. Councillor Yong suggested asking Laxmi for help as she had offered to help with ideas at the last meeting. She could approach establishments and ask if they were interested in joining the scheme. The Chairman stated Steph James, the Maidenhead Town Manager should be approached and asked to join in on getting businesses to agree to the scheme.

v  Action – The Energy Manager to speak to Steph James, Town Manager to ask her to help engage businesses to sign up to a bottle refilling scheme for members of the public.

Energy

Members noted the details of the energy data on page 15 of the agenda pack, paragraph 11.1. between April and December 2017, there was an 18.5% reduction in energy against the baseline for corporate sites; including lighting, it was a 25% reduction. The target was a 15% reduction so the Council was on track.

Councillor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 117.

The dates of future meetings are as follows (7.30pm start):

XXX

Members noted the details of the next meeting date being 31 May 2018.