Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The 4 Unitary authorities in the West of England (Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset) have formed a programme board to deliver a joint municipal waste management strategy, an outline business case for the procurement of strategic waste treatment capacity and a joint waste Development Plan Document (DPD) to facilitate the delivery of the required facilities.

1.2 This report seeks the approval of Council Executive to participate in the partnership to deliver the joint waste DPD, the joint municipal waste management strategy and to develop an outline business case for procurement of strategic facilities. For legal reasons detailed at 5.7 below, the progression of the joint waste DPD requires the approval of both Executive and Council.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The authority enters into a formal partnership agreement with North Somerset, Bristol City and South Gloucestershire Councils, based on the terms set out in this report. This partnership will be tasked with delivering a joint municipal waste management strategy and a joint Waste Development Plan Document, together with an outline business case for the joint procurement of waste treatment facilities;

2.2 A Joint Waste Development Plan Document be prepared with the other authorities named in 1.1;

2.3 It recommends that Full Council be asked to approve the preparation of a Joint Waste Development Plan Document.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The Bath & North East Somerset Assistant Director for Resources has been asked to act as the lead financial advisor to the Project.

3.2 £73K has been allocated within the 2006/07 Service Plan to undertake the joint waste management and waste planning projects.

3.3 Current anticipated total costs in 2006/07, in respect of delivering the programme, for the four authorities are shown in Table 1 below.

3.4 An overspend of £40.5K is likely if the project proceeds to current timescales and all contingency funding is allocated. However, this overspend can be mitigated if the project board chooses to delay work streams, although these delays may give rise to greater financial implications in future years through landfill disposal charges and potential fines if facilities are not delivered to projected timescales.

3.5 Table 2 indicates the key areas of expenditure in 2006/07.

3.6 Table 3 indicates additional expert support gained through externally-funded sources - Defra and GOSW in 06/07 which total a further £165,000. Further opportunities for external support-in-kind or funding will be sought wherever possible.

Table 2: West of England Waste Management and Planning Strategy programme key areas of expenditure in 2006/07

Table 3: External Support received in 2005/06 and 2006/07 to date - funded by Defra / GOSW

3.7 In addition to the above, each authority is providing staff resources in kind, in particular waste management officers, planning officers and directors, with financial and legal officers support as required.

3.8 As part of the project delivery each Council is required to commit a 25% financial contribution in 06/07. This proportional split is being reviewed and a different basis for cost sharing will be proposed for 07/08 onwards.

3.9 Project Initiation Documents (PID) for the joint municipal waste management strategy and joint DPD projects, including cost / resource implications, are currently being finalised by the Project Managers. Subject to the reviewed cost sharing basis, potential costs of £150k for Bath & North East Somerset are currently being estimated for 2007/08.

3.10 A third PID to cover the Procurement stage is to be drafted which will estimate the funding implications of embarking upon a procurement exercise for waste treatment infrastructure. The Council will be asked in 2007/08 to make a decision on whether it wishes to embark upon a procurement and a full business case will be presented.

3.11 Staff resources are being directed into this essential West of England Waste Management Strategy and DPD work from the Council's waste management and planning policy units. This is adding pressure to workloads and forcing prioritisation of work within these service areas. There are however economies of scale and efficiencies to be gained from joint, rather than individual, working on provision of waste treatment capacity.

3.12 The letter to ministers at Appendix B contains projections of the costs arising for the four authorities from Landfill Tax and the new Landfill Allowance regime.

4 COMMUNITY STRATEGY OUTCOMES

5 CORPORATE IMPROVEMENT PRIORITIES

Treating waste as close to its point of production as possible, moving towards sub-regional self-sufficiency.

6 CPA KEY LINES OF ENQUIRY

7 THE REPORT

7.1 This Council's waste strategy, adopted in July 2005 details a commitment to working in partnership with neighbouring local authorities to deliver waste treatment infrastructure to enable the diversion of maximum quantities of waste from landfill.

7.2 The main drivers are environmental and financial, resulting in a need to divert more residual waste from landfill disposal (with each authority optimising recycling and composting) so minimising the risk of financial penalties under the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme Regulations and from Landfill Tax. Current projections show that the four authorities are jointly at risk of LATS fines and landfill tax of £21 million in 2010/11 rising to over £30 million in 2012/13.

7.3 There is an expectation from the government and Defra that local authorities will work collaboratively on waste services procurements and contracts in order to achieve efficiencies and minimise costs. Experience to date has indicated that joint bids for funding are received favourably by regional and central support funding organisations and that this will continue in the foreseeable future.

7.4 Funded by the Defra Waste Implementation Consultancy Support Programme, the authorities commissioned an extensive study last year. It included a review of technologies and options for municipal waste treatment and a site search to identify possible locations for facilities. This study was presented to the Project Board meeting on 29 November 2005.

7.5 From a planning viewpoint, Appendix 2 of the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy refers to the "former Avon" area in setting targets for waste management capacity. Policy W1 refers to the need for Waste Development Frameworks to have regard to strategic as well as local provision of facilities. In order to meet these statutory targets and policy requirements the need for collaborative working between the four unitary authorities (UAs) is unavoidable. A joint DPD is the most effective way of achieving this.

7.6 The production of a statutory DPD jointly with the other West of England authorities, in conjunction with joint production of a sub-regional Municipal Waste Management Strategy, is essential if the required facilities are to be developed within a strategic, sub-regional context. Members will recall that Executive resolved at its meeting on February 8th to amend the Council's Local Development Scheme to include reference to development of this plan.

7.7 Subsequent to that resolution, officers are advised that adoption of DPDs and any decision to prepare with other Councils a Joint DPD is, by virtue of the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (Amendment) (No2) Regulations 2005, a shared responsibility between Executive and Council. This means that the Council must give its approval, following a recommendation of the Executive, to progression of the DPD.

7.8 There is concern that progressing work on the Joint DPD without prior agreement by the respective councils to the principle of joint planning might invalidate the procedure. In light of this, and to remove any uncertainty in this respect, each of the four partner Councils is being asked to confirm their approval of preparation of the joint document.

7.9 Whilst preliminary project and planning work is underway, there will be no publication of, or consultation on, any draft DPD until the beginning of 2007. It is necessary for the respective councils to give their approvals before that exercise commences.

7.10 The four Unitary Authorities of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire are working in partnership to develop joint strategies for municipal waste management and waste planning, and are developing in parallel a joint outline business case for the procurement of treatment capability.

7.11 A Project Board comprising Executive Members responsible for waste management and planning has been established. Councillor Gerry Curran represents Bath & North East Somerset Council on the Project Board

7.12 An officer Project Team has been in place for over 12 months, taking the project forward and supporting the Project Board, with officers from each authority taking a lead on various activities and tasks required to delivery the joint strategies.

7.13 At its meeting on 20 April 2006, the Project Board considered a report on partnership arrangements prepared by South Gloucestershire Council's Partnership Solicitor. The report is attached as Appendix A to this report

7.14 The report at Appendix A considers options for formalising arrangements and concludes that, initially, a formal joint agreement is established operating around the current Project Board and Project Team. The Partnership has procured specialist advisors. In addition dedicated staff resources, e.g. a Communications Officer and Project Officer, are being funded on a joint basis. In each case, one authority acts as the lead and deals with procurement, invoices and staffing issues and recharges the other authorities on an equal appointment basis.

7.15 At the point at which authorities consider formally entering into a joint procurement of waste treatment facilities it will be appropriate to review the partnership contracting arrangements. (This will be the subject of a future report).

7.16 The attached report gives more details of constitutional and legal issues surrounding partnership working. In essence, it suggests an incremental approach, moving up a level of formality as circumstances require. Recommendations from the Project Board of 20^th April 2006 are detailed in Appendix C.

8 RISK MANAGEMENT

8.1 The report author and Lead Executive member have fully reviewed the risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.

8.2 A detailed risk register has been developed for the project.

9 RATIONALE

9.1 Without the development of new waste treatment infrastructure, each authority in the West of England faces potential fines under the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme. The potential impact on Bath &North East Somerset Council is detailed in our Waste Strategy published in 2005. Fines and landfill tax combined could collectively amount to over £30 million in 2012/13 for the authorities if no new waste treatment infrastructure is available.

9.2 Economies of scale will be achieved by working together.

9.3 The joint municipal waste management strategy and waste DPD pave the way for the procurement of waste infrastructure, and will reduce the planning risk for any proposed development.

10 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

10.1 Preparation of waste management strategies and DPDs on an individual authority basis has been considered. The strategic nature of the key issues facing all four authorities together with the economies of scale and efficiency savings resulting from joint working means that this option, in so far as all four authorities are clearly committed to work together, is not preferred.

11 CONSULTATION

11.1 Strategic Consultation Forum

11.2 An initial public consultation on Issues and Options surrounding municipal wastes and planning for waste facilities has been undertaken during summer 2006. Consultation with private waste sector providers is also being undertaken. An initial Industry Consultation day was carried out on 20^th July.

11.3 More concerted consultation on eventual selected treatment options (including for municipal waste) and on sites selection will be undertaken over the winter of 2006/07 as a second stage.

12 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

12.1 Customer Focus; Sustainability; Human Resources; Property; Human Rights; Corporate; Health & Safety; Impact on Staff; Other Legal Considerations

13 ADVICE SOUGHT

13.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer (Resources Director) have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.