To provide an opportunity to pose questions to Cabinet Members in line with Standing Orders.
Process:
No more than 10 minutes will be allocated at the Council meeting for questions to each Cabinet Member.
Members must submit their proposed questions in writing in advance in accordance with Standing Orders. If members are unable to ask their question orally within the allocated time, remaining questions will be answered in writing. The question and response will be appended to the minutes.
The question must be addressed through the Mayor or the person presiding at the meeting and not directly to the person being questioned.
Questions will be posed to Cabinet Members in the following order:
i. Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education and Early Years
ii. Cabinet Member for Community and Wellbeing
iii. Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Regulation and Housing
iv. Cabinet Member for Social Services
v. Cabinet Member for Organisational Transformation
vi. Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Bio-Diversity
vii. Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Assets
Minutes:
There was one written question to the Cabinet Members:
Question 1 – Cabinet Member: Climate Change and Biodiversity
Councillor Chris Reeks:
With Newport City Council currently falling short of its recycling targets would it not be a prudent move to boost these targets and to help encourage the younger generation about the need to recycle more by offering free recycling services to all schools within Newport?
At present schools are classed as a business and would have to pay Newport City Council to take their recycling away, with some schools potentially choosing not to recycle their waste.
Would the Cabinet Member agree with me that by offering this service it would demonstrate to the community that the Council is committed to meeting its targets and helping to educate children about the benefits of recycling and not just using this as a money-raising exercise?
Response from Councillor Forsey:
There is a legal requirement for all who produce, keep, or dispose of waste of any type to comply with the various regulations and the Duty of Care under Environmental Protection legislation. Waste generated at schools is classed as commercial waste by virtue of the Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012, and as such is not free at the point of delivery.
Schools need to meet all legal requirements, and since 2015 there is an obligation to segregate cardboard, paper, plastic, metal, and glass separately from the non-recyclable waste, so all schools should have recycling collections already in place. From April 2024, legal requirements will change to include the need to separate at source all those elements for recycling (until now there was an option for all recyclable materials to be collected mixed together) and to recycle food waste if more than 5kg are produced per week.
Schools receive funding to cover the cost of their waste collections via the DSB. While they don’t have to use the Council trade waste collection services for their collections, the waste department offer a flexible, inexpensive alternative to private commercial operators, and they already collect waste from 48 out of 57 schools in Newport, with 42 of them benefiting from recycling collections via our partners Wastesavers. Recycling collections are cheaper than residual waste collections, meaning that the incentive and arrangements to recycle are already there. The waste department will fully engage with schools and encourage them to recycle as much as possible ahead of the legislative changes in 2024.
Supplementary:
If 48 out of 57 schools were using Council services, how could we encourage the remaining nine schools to use these services.
Response from Councillor Forsey:
Councillor Forsey attended a school’s conference earlier today regarding recycling organised by Chartwells at St Joseph’s Primary School, which was extremely interesting and was happy to see all the very enthusiastic young children there. Councillor Forsey did not think that it would increase the recycling rate, there would be more recycling and more residual waste. It was therefore not going to change behaviour. Councillor Forsey looked forward to the regulations coming in for April 2024, where all schools were required to segregate their waste, because the more that was segregated at source, the better the outcome.