Issue - items at meetings - WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM COUNCILLORS

(copy attached).

74.1               Councillor Kitcat had submitted five questions, but had subsequently given his apologies and could not attend the meeting. The Chairman advised that the following questions and answers had been circulated and that they would be forwarded to Councillor Kitcat:

Question:

“Why has Brighton & Hove's municipal waste tonnage increased against a national and regional trend for waste reduction? (According to DEFRA figures at

http://www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/statistics/environment/wastats/bulletin10.htm).”

Response:

“Municipal waste tonnage in this city has been reducing year on year.  It did increase slightly in 2009/10 but was still lower than in 2006/07 and 2007/08.  

Question:

“Why has this Council performed less well than the previous year, despite other councils across the UK improving performance year on year?”

Response:

“Many councils have seen recycling rates drop in recent years.  Experts in the field believe this is due to the recession – for example, newspaper and magazine sales have dropped – and also because measures to reduce packaging are starting to have an effect.”

Question:

“What are the particular reasons that apply here which mean that recycling services perform much worse than the regional average (South East average is 35%)?”

Response:

“Recycling rates in cities are generally lower than they are in rural areas.  Rural areas have the luxury of having plenty of space for wheelie bins for recycling and green waste, and many of them impose fortnightly refuse collections which will increase recycling rates. 

This Administration is not proposing to introduce fortnightly refuse collections or artificially inflating figures by providing a garden waste collection at additional cost to the council tax payer.

East Sussex, for example, is a largely rural authority, so it is hardly surprising that our recycling rate is lower.  Our recycling rate is higher than other cities such as Portsmouth (24.7%), Southampton (26.4%), Manchester (18.8%), Lewisham (16.8%), Liverpool (25.5%) and Westminster (24.4%).”

Question:

“What is Cllr Theobald going to do to make sure that next year this Council's recycling figures are at least on a par with other local authorities?”

Response:

“Our recycling rates are already better than those of many other cities.

We are extending recycling services to blocks of flats, improving ‘bring sites’ and have introduced carton recycling at many points across the city.

I am pleased to say that our early projections for this year show an increase in recycling rates and a reduction in total waste produced.”

Question:

“What is the carbon debt associated with the failure to maximise the recycling service in the city, and how do this Council intend to reduce carbon emissions from waste operations to promote a low carbon waste service?”

Response:

“This Administration is maximising recycling rates in a sustainable manner.”