Transcript

Thank you very much.

Can everybody hear me?

Yep, thank you.

As a slight introduction, yeah it it’s been a very interesting journey for the last two years.

As I was completely out of my field, I decided I wanted to create a change and game into the world of waste.

I’ve been dabbled in hazardous waste for for a small number of years and now find myself responsible for the two biggest contracts across Cannock Chase and Stafford Borough Councils.

The first projects that I was given to deliver were the introduction of chargeable garden waste at Cannock and also renewing the contract with Biffy at Cannock.

We couldn’t have Biffy and it’s been out to tender this year.

Both have been a success in the first year, which I’m going to cover half of that now and I think I might quit while I’m ahead.

So from the first slide you will see this is the demographic of Cannock.

The area that we cover, we’ve got Rouge Lee, Cannock and Hansford.

It covers significant part of Cannock Chase here, which was recently renamed as the national Landscape and the property count in that area is 46,000 and 48 properties which increases year on year around about 250 to 260 properties.

Eligible properties for the the service was around about 44,000.

What we did find was a number of the ineligible properties didn’t like to be left out of the service and even though there is a charge, they didn’t like that neither.

So we couldn’t win on either hand.

And that sort of leads us to the complaints which I know Philip and and Jess touched upon.

They’re just, we haven’t had that many complaints in the service considering we which, which I’ll log that to the target numbers and the achieved numbers, but we’ve not even broken three figures in terms of complaints, still less than 100 formal complaints.

So we again, we consider that quite successful.

We operate a forestry and waste and recycling collection service in Cannock.

Each container used to collect different waste streams.

As you can see from the slide.

I I think most councils local authorities are now delivering something similar with different Ben covers in varying areas.

We don’t landfill and haven’t since 2014.

All of it into the RF4 ashes.

Along with we’re a member of the Staffordshire Waste Partnership with another nine local authorities who who operates similar or the same services.

What you’ll see there is the initial flyer and poster that we sent out to all of our residents.

We had this in a number of formats.

We had it on social media, we had it on posters, we had it on vehicle wraps.

We sent it out as far and wide as we possibly could, tried to keep it as limited, as limited as we could with certain information.

I found through the process there was far too many people, far too many fingers in the pie, so to speak, which which led to a lot of complications in in how we were going to deliver the information that we needed to.

And somebody had to really take control of it with that person being me and asked people just to step back from the process.

We spoke to the members on a regular basis, but due to my sort of late introduction into the service, I discovered that there’d been very little consultation amongst the members and the residents of the the Cannon Chase District.

So that was painful and difficulty in how we’re going to get this message across when nobody was even aware that it was coming.

So we tried to keep it as as user friendly with a couple of links on there where people could contact us.

But again, there’s too much involvement from departments that didn’t need to be involved.

What that did lead to was me speaking to most of the Staffordshire Waste Partnership and one name did crop up repeatedly through that process and that was Permiserve, which which was very helpful.

But I will come to that further on the slides, the history of our garden waste collection service at Cannock and there’s a brief view of it there.

So when we first started collecting waste back in 2005, we had a couple of methods as you can see through to 2016.

As I said prior to my arrival, the decision was made to reintroduce or introduce a chargeable garden waste service.

Yeah, like I said, the, the, the consultation could have been a lot better I think in, in my opinion.

But following on from that and the conversations that we were holding it, it was a lot better.

I would encourage everybody to speak.

I think in, in the last presentation it was mentioned about speaking to your neighbours and that that’s something that we absolutely did.

Every single one of them, even the ones who hadn’t launched it and they’ve found it beneficial.

And since then they’ve gone on to launch.

Certainly one of them’s gone on to launch their own in a much tighter time scale than I did, I might add.

So the reasons why we introduced the service, we had the opportunity to withdraw the service completely as per most local authorities up and down the UKA lot, lot of us didn’t have a lot of money to spend anymore and it was something that we had to consider.

We had to find savings.

The the other option was that we retain the service and then we obviously looked to introduce a charge.

We want to get an income stream into the council.

If we’d have withdrawn the service, residents would have had to remove the garden waste themselves.

We thought there was going to then be a risk of fly tipping and residual waste increasing.

But in retaining the service, as I just said, we could generate income.

So that’s the decision that was agreed.

So the service overview, our subscriptions run from the 1st of January to the 31st of December.

We placed a limit of two permits per household, although more can be purchased, but that has to be agreed in the back office because there’s various reasons.

Again, following this conversations that we had with numerous local authorities, people operating their own businesses from home for example, might see this as a cheap way to remove their their rubbish from their work.

So we we agreed with that and there hasn’t been too many issues with regards to that, mainly from private landlords.

It might, might operate small blocks of flats, for example, might need one per bin.

So they could come and get 6 permits if you like that, that kind of thing.

And then we’ve got the £38.50 per bin.

Again, we, we didn’t just put the figure out of the air.

We spoke to all of our neighbouring authorities, took an average from them.

But then we also decided to reach out further and go nationally and speak to other local authorities and found the highest at 96 LB, I think it was per bin and the cheapest outside of our districts.

I think we found, no, I’ve got that incorrect to do apologise for that because the average within our district came out at £52 per Ben.

So we had a look at what we could do.

I’ve told you incorrectly again, I do apologise for that.

The £52 was the highest in our district, not the average.

So we looked at the average which is around about to say over £38.50.

We decided to go with that.

I again, after speaking to Permissive previously, they indicated, as was mentioned in the previous presentation, that they should not be fearful of putting your increase in what?

What?

Whatever it’s going to be, whether it’s five percent, 10%, because you’re going to get criticism for it anyway.

It was my idea to go in at 40 LB but it was decided against.

So we went in at 38 pound.

5050 pence, believe it or not, has caused the biggest issue to people.

Why not 38 LB?

Why not 39?

Bizarrely, but but yeah, £38.50 was agreed and we decided in terms of how people could subscribe whether the online option was going to be the best option.

It’s proven to be so I will get on to that shortly.

But there’s other options available again including over the telephone, obviously coming in in person and even a cheque payable option.

I’ve pretty much covered what’s on this slide in the in the last comments, but that the payment options there we we’ve had the other added issue in terms of launching this service and launching a new CRM at the same time, which wasn’t ideal, very challenging.

And our department was decided it was going to be the Guinea pig for that service, which yeah, it’s caused quite a bit of pain amongst a number of people, but it’s in place now and it’s working currently.

And, and again, just getting back to us at what Jas said previously, one of the issues that we have had is, is the actual payment system itself.

I’m unsure everybody’s experience and I’m hoping to pick up on this today.

We have a system at Cannock where we effectively lose the customer through through the payment system.

They give them the code which they have to input.

Looking at your face there, I’m sure you’ve had a similar experience.

It’s not good enough, it’s not acceptable.

It’s really poor service for for the, the residents.

And it is something that we’re looking to improve upon for the next year, particularly as we have exceeded our targets and the, and the finance is there to introduce that.

So I’m hoping that that will be in place for the second year.

Telephone payments via our contact centre as as I’ve said, chip and pin option at the Civic Centre, reception and cheque payments.

And I would say to anybody, don’t underestimate cheque payments.

We spoke to our nearest neighbour and Stafford who we have a, they have a bigger household number and they advise we will get around about two to 300, maybe 400 portion.

And we’ve, we’ve gone past 400 with, with less households.

So I think you’ve really got to look at your demographic, your age profile, that kind of thing.

So direct debits weren’t offered as they aren’t available in our finance system.

And again, speaking to some of our partners, I don’t think it’s something we will be looking to introduce.

But again, today I’m hoping to speak to people who might have had a better experience as the added bit there.

So, so yes, I will be talking later.

So introduction to Permiserv, we were first introduced to Permiserv via conversations through the Staffordshire Waste Partnership and I was able to speak to Louise directly.

Things that you can see on there, we, we discussed ideas and time scales and costs, the process which I was rapidly running out of time to introduce and the integration of systems, which I was reassured by Louise that there would be no issue from Permiserve’s side.

And that’s exactly how it’s turned up to be the samples that, that I’ve included in there.

So the, the artwork was something we discussed earlier as well.

And Louise did say about getting, making sure that you get the artwork in on time.

I think I did take it to the limit, frankly, but it was there on time and again, proved to be really good advice.

And then outside of that, we had further meetings with Permiserve at our contact centre, Befe because of their white space solution that that they use and our IT team as well as you can can see on there with Goss, which is the new CRM that we introduced, we felt it was really important to get everybody involved.

I did mention several slides back about there being too many fingers in the pie.

And I think that’s what people have got to be careful about because you can just find a lot of interference and you need to remember that it’s your service and the customers that that that was the thing that always stood out to me.

It was the customers and the residents that were the important people in it rather than personal opinion and shall I say, political point scoring.

So in November 2023, we went out to the residents with the postcard that I showed you earlier.

Everybody received one of those in the district, even those who weren’t eligible, just so they were aware of it at that stage.

We did start receiving a lot of telephone calls, a lot, a lot.

When I say a lot of complaints, it’s more grumbles, not formal complaints.

People generally have to say understood the reasons behind it, that they’d heard the news about most local authorities struggling.

Birmingham City Council was in the news at the time.

So I don’t think it was a surprise to anybody and I think a big thing in our favour is that most of our neighbours had already launched the same or similar service.

So it it went live on the 6th of December 2023 in terms of being able to subscribe and on day one we had 845 residents signing up.

I was, if I’m brutally honest, I was a little disappointed with that.

I thought they’d all be banging on the door.

But by the end of week one we had nearly 4000 and at the end of month one we had nearly 10,000 figures.

Those figures are slightly out of date as as of this morning we are 8 off 22,000 and our target initially was 18,350 which was 40% of our our stock.

I will eat humble pie.

I was advised again by I love I should aim higher.

50% was easily achievable and as of today that’s exactly where we’ll be.

Refunds being issued to residents.

We’ve had only just over 50.

They can be again, dependent on your, your payment system.

The refunds can be complex, a bit a bit of a time stealer.

We’ve found.

I think that’s as much to do with our system in getting people trained on the systems as anything else.

But we haven’t had significant numbers on the 22nd of January.

That was when the actual collection started for the new service.

And we estimated as I’ve said between 40 and 50% and we’re just at 50% today.

So we had 12,000 residents signed up by the 22nd of Jan and we did have a few implementation issues regarding the payment system and the CRM.

But as I said previously, most of that was down to the system that we use.

Some of you may be more familiar with it, end call and mid call.

It’s words that I’ve never come across before and systems that I’ve never come across before.

But like I say, I’m hopeful that, and I do have the Deputy Chief Exec on side too, that he will find the money for that improvement later this year.

I threw this in here because I didn’t know where else to put it, frankly, about allotments, because this was one that really caught me out.

We have a number of allotments in Canning Chase.

Nobody had mentioned it through the process, but we had a significant number of people saying, well, who’s going to collect hours?

What, why should we have to pay?

Well, as somebody again mentioned previously, we also offer no concessions if, if you want to pay.

But the issue we had, there’s no UPRNS on the on the allotments.

So we we’re struggling for addresses.

People were offering to give their home addresses but that then wouldn’t allow for the service to collect from the allotment.

Ultimately what we did do in the end was advise everybody that as you’ve done allotment, you should be composted anyway.

And that problem at the moment has gone away.

I do think it will return.

I think more people will come back in the future.

But again, I will be looking to speak to people today to see if anybody’s had that experience in what they’re doing too.

Some of the challenges that we’ve had.

So the digital impact, obviously there was increased activity on, on the website.

It didn’t break it.

So we, we were fortunate in that.

And the payment system as as I’ve talked about, does need additional work.

So I’m sure there’ll be similar people in the same room who will have the same issues.

The service impact that, that, that was probably something that we, whilst we were aware of it, we possibly underestimated, but directly linked to the payment system where, where the matching of payments has to be done.

We offered up a percentage of the income to the contact centre so they could get somebody full time on it.

It wasn’t enough, frankly, we had around about four people initially full time working on matching payments.

But, but I do link that directly to the system that has now calmed down.

But obviously we’re, we’re getting more, sorry, we’re getting less people now signing up as the year progresses.

But it’s something we’re keen to resolve before they start again later this year.

Some training has to be delivered for our new CRM across all departments, so people have a greater understanding of this and particularly the Permiserve system.

Again, we we had training Louise and the team frankly were fantastic with us catering for more than one team and and on more than one occasion.

But I would recommend that everybody does it.

Not that not that perm serves a difficult system to use in Marted.

So that was a report that we pulled off our system very basic.

But what gave you is the information we wanted at the time, which was to see how many people had signed up any additional bins.

For example, when people were requesting to how they’d signed up that we we needed to see whether it was online or the contact centre.

What we didn’t have in that at the time was the breakdown from the contact centre.

We didn’t have whether it was in person or over the phone, just just to clarify that our contact centre also work on the reception of the Civic Centre.

So that there was a mixed bag in there of people walking in and telephone that there that looks a complete mess.

In the middle of the map is is another report that we’re able to pull off.

And it just gives you the location of where the where the collections are, where, where people have signed up to the service.

It looks today a lot messier than that even a lot of brown dots on the map.

Communications again, I think the bit, the biggie for me and all that is is the consultation element.

Actually, it was very disappointing to find that we’d done very, very little of that.

People not knowing about the introduction of this at all, even councillors who had agreed to bring it in from one side and then a change of administration, they were then challenging from the other side.

It was, it was very difficult, fully supportive of it several, several months ago and then arguing that the actual opposite calls for their residents several months on.

So it made it very difficult for the officers.

But we were able to speak to them at cabinet and, and most got on board to try and resolve that.

But the comms that we put out there, obviously we used social media, we used our website final wraps posters and, and we just got as much as we possibly could.

That’s just a small example on there.

Obviously, we, we used as much as we could as often as we could just to make sure that everybody was aware what was coming.

I think it would because the number of complaints that we received did reduce dramatically.

And like I said, we still haven’t formal complaints.

We still haven’t reached even 100 further comms as you can see there.

We had that consistency with the the posters, the Flyers and the vehicle wraps and we were able to include what the permit looked like as well, which we hope we had some good feedback about that.

People were beginning to ask questions by the stage what the permit would be like, what they needed to do with it, etcetera.

As you will see from this slide and the the pack itself, again, we had good conversation with permit serve what to include.

They’ve got a wealth of experience in in regard to this world.

Again, we spoke to our partners, nine different councils, all, all the different views and it was very beneficial for us to to get that information from everybody.

And when we did send the pack out, we included the TS and CS and there if they were requested, we didn’t send it out to everybody.

Obviously the more information you put in, the more the cost of sending.

But again, permissive were very open about the costs and there’s no issues.

But So what we decided to include was we had the branded envelopes, obviously includes a welcome letter and the FAQs, the permit itself and the TS and CS if the resident didn’t have an e-mail address that they were able to receive the TS and CS from.

So far, we’ve had absolutely 0 complaints about the pack itself, content or anything related to that.

There’s been no issues whatsoever.

We do get the occasional one that goes astray.

And again, we’ve spoken with payments on a regular basis about that.

I would say 99.9% has been down to the delivery of that.

It’s through the Royal Mail.

We’ve had a a few issues with them.

We haven’t had any of late.

So hopefully that might have resolved itself.

And that brings me to the end.

So thank you all.

Yeah.