The council says the funding will secure the improved infrastructure required to ensure a new weekly food waste collection service can be introduced in 2023.
The meeting proved controversial, as the public and press were excluded when the true cost of the increase to Cornwall’s current £62 million capital programme was disclosed, much to the chagrin of many of the councillors present.
However much it equates to, the extra funding will go towards building a new materials recycling facility at Hallenbeagle and a transfer station in Pool, alongside redeveloping four existing household waste recycling centres at Bodmin, Connor Bridge, Launceston and St Erth, so they can “receive food waste, a new vehicle fleet and an increase in recycling material” (see letsrecycle.com story).
Once the infrastructure is in place, Cornwall will collect residual waste and recyclables fortnightly, as well as introducing food waste collections.
In a statement published on 13 July, Cornwall council said: “The council aims to ensure that all its capital projects make reasonable allowances for cost increases.
“However, the effect of inflation and the rapidly increasing costs of material and labour facing the whole construction industry, as well as issues such as rising fuel costs, have resulted in unprecedented cost increases that could not have been anticipated.”
Plans
The plans have been in the pipeline for a while. In January 2020, Cornwall council agreed a new eight-year contract worth £273 million with Biffa, who was their incumbent contractor, to provide waste collection and street cleansing services across the county (see letsrecycle.com story).
As part of the deal, Cornwall planned to introduce a weekly food waste collection and fortnightly waste and recycling collections in 2021. This was delayed to 2022 to allow the council time to make changes to the transfer stations where the food waste and recycling was to be delivered (see letsrecycle.com story).
In July 2021, the council decided not to implement the changes until 2023 so it could “consider the implications” of potential new burdens funding offered by the government under the Environment Act (see letsrecycle.com story). The changes to the services are still expected to take place next year.
‘Commercially confidential’
Attempting to justify not disclosing the value of the funding, Cllr David Harris, Cornwall council’s Conservative deputy leader, said: “The waste contract and negotiations around it are commercial in nature.
“If we show how much we are prepared to increase the capital programme by, that shows those with whom we are to spend the money how much we are thinking about spending. There’s no attempt to hide anything.”
However, independent Cllr Julian German said in response: “This is an existing contract that the council is already in. It’s not a competitive process, tendering external providers through different contracts.
“We already have a contract – it’s about working within that contract, so why are these figures commercially confidential? In any case, Cllr Harris will recognise that these figures will be public figures at year end because our accounts are public, so why hide them now?”
Recycling rates
Representing an estimated population of more than 565,000, Cornwall council had a household waste recycling rate of 33.3% in the 2020/21 financial year.
Speaking after the meeting, council leader Linda Taylor said introducing changes to Cornwall’s waste services would improve the county’s recycling rate. She said: “Recycling rates in Cornwall lag behind many other parts of the country, and I am determined that we tackle that.
“These changes to our waste and recycling collections will help drive up those figures, through the separate weekly collection of food waste which will help us to reduce the amount of rubbish we collect and in turn, help cut our carbon footprint.
“We must act now, and I am delighted we will be able to proceed and deliver the new service from next year.”
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