Welcome

Welcome to Issue 9 of the Pathfinder Newsletter.  This issue we say goodbye to Cllr Michael Edmonds outgoing Chairman of the Joint Implementation Board and welcome the new Chair Cllr Frank Downes.

We have reviews on events and features on processes and as usual an update on all the most recent happenings from the Pathfinder workstreams.

Project Profile

Waste Programme

Refuse collectionThis project area is building on the work of the Joint Waste Committee and exploring options for further integration of waste operations across the five Pathfinder partners.

Within scope

  • The waste management functions of the five Buckinghamshire authorities.
  • These include the core functions that will form part of a "Joint Waste Authority" (JWA) as well as ancillary functions that will be subject to review during the project and may be included in the JWA or addressed through other methods of enhanced two tier working.
  • The core and ancillary functions are set out in the Joint Improvement Board (JIB) report dated 26 July 2007.

Out of scope

  • The Strategic Planning Function of waste will remain with the County Council.
  • Other ancillary functions which are currently managed through waste service staff such as public toilet cleansing and markets management.

In April 2008 the Project Board appointed consultants (Eunomia) to assist in developing a Business Case.  Agreement was reached by the Project Board that five shared service delivery scenarios would be analysed in depth and presented in the final Business Case report.  These were as follows:

  • Scenario 1: Joint education, communications and enforcement teams, plus joint procurement of goods.
  • Scenario 2: Joint Procurement of waste collection service contracts
  • Scenario 3: Joint Collection and Disposal Officer Team
  • Scenario 4: Joint Waste Collection Contracts and Joint Waste Collection Officer Team (Horizontal integration model)
  • Scenario 5: Joint Waste Services Contracts and Joint Waste Collection and Disposal Officer Team (Horizontal and vertical integration model)

In broad terms these scenarios represent a spectrum of increasing integration with associated increasing cost savings and greater delegation of functions and resources under a new structure, with scenario 5 being the most integrated.   

At a Members Workshop in June and July Scenarios 4 & 5 stood out as offering the most potential.  Additional work on refining the benefits around Scenarios 4 & 5 was undertaken over the summer and autumn of 2008.  This included costs of workforce harmonisation, more detailed infrastructure analysis plus work on governance and cost sharing principles.

Pathfinder - WasteIn terms of Cost Sharing, section 151 officers and subsequently Members were in broad agreement on the approaches and principles, a key fundamental being that costs should follow function. 

Project Board Members met on 8th January to consider which of the scenarios (4 or 5) should be supported as the end goal for Pathfinder and be the recommendation for the Joint Waste Committee on 29th January.

Following a lengthy debate the conclusion from the Project Board was that Scenario 4 should be supported as the end goal for Pathfinder. It should be noted that the County could not support the majority view to recommend to the Joint Waste Committee Scenario 4 in preference to Scenario 5 as being the desirable end goal due. 

This decision was presented to the JWC on 29th January and the decision to support Scenario 4 only, was upheld as the recommendation that would go forward.

The Leaders agreed with the suggested recommendation regarding Scenario 4, but for it to also include work on an option that combines the merits of both options 4 & 5.

If you have any questions about the Pathfinder Waste Programme, please contact Roger Seed rseed@buckscc.gov.uk, or David Smedley dsmedley@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk 

 

Issue 9 - Autumn 2009
 

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