Wrexham Council’s new Lead Member for Environment, Councillor David A Bithell, has responded to the Audit Wales Waste Report.
The Audit Wales Waste Report is a series of independent performance evaluations that asses how local authorities in Wales handle waste, recycling and statutory targets.
Councillor David A Bithell said:
“We welcome the report from Audit Wales Waste, and we will respond in a positive manner.
- Wrexham has a very good track record in Waste and Recycling although in recent times our performance has not increased despite in the early years of being in the top quartile in Wales.
- I recognise that our costs are high, although, to put this into context our in-house teams who work in waste services also work across highways and grounds maintenance and are multi-functional.
- Our PFI contract is costly, although is one of the leading facilities in Wales, we do need to understand our costs and plan when the contact is completed and make any efficiencies or income generation to reduce costs. We are working with our supplier to plan and support more targeted initiatives including educational rooms we have available.
- in respect of performance – although currently below the statutory targets, we plan to increase our recycling and compost rates. Our revised strategy to be introduced in early September will set a clear focus on increasing our recycling rates and engagement with the public. We are also planning to introduce new weighted bags and recycling boxes as capacity across Wrexham in mixed between recycling trollies and boxes.
- We need to engage better with elected members and our constituents on how we can improve the service together with a plan on how we will reach 70%. We have slipped positive engagement in this area and need to improve so that future decisions are fully understood. We will be introducing a new media officer dedicated for the service area, this post will be engaging with our waste strategy team which is short in capacity. This will ensure that engagement and information with our constituents and elected members is better.
- We are working hard to address root causes of our dip in performance and improve data analysis including the cost of the service this work will be accelerated to ensure we make future informed decisions.”
More information on Audit Wales Waste can be found on the Audit Wales Waste website.
