Waste and Recycling
Audit Commission Report - May 06
An inspection was carried out by the Audit Commission of Dover District Council's Waste Management and Street Cleaning service.
Audit Commission Report - May 06 (pdf, 147kb)
Summary of the report
- Dover District Council provides a fair Waste Management and Street Cleaning
Service and there are promising prospects for improvement.
- Overall the area is clean and the government target for cleanliness has been met.
It is easy to contact the service and local people have above average satisfaction
with cleanliness of the area. It is working well with Kent County Council and other
agencies to tackle environmental nuisance such as fly-tipping. The Council's
recycling scheme does not yet extend to the whole district, but there is good
provision of 'bring' sites throughout the area. However, cleanliness of the roads is
poor for those leading to and around the ferry port.
- The Council has not met the government target for recycling in the past. It missed
the 10 per cent target for 2003/04, and will not meet the 18 per cent target in the
current financial year. However, it is improving the service such that it is confident
that its target for 2006/07 will be met.
- The Council has identified waste management as a corporate priority. It
demonstrates a high level of self-awareness about the strengths and areas for
improvement. A comprehensive and challenging review carried out in 2004 led to
an internal restructuring that moved the responsibility for the service to the
Property and Procurement Division. As a consequence, performance is being
managed more effectively and improvements in street cleaning in particular have
been achieved.
- The limited engagement with the community in the past is being addressed
through a proactive approach to seeking the views of residents through surveys.
The recent establishment of the Dover Waste Forum underpins this improved
approach. However, the Council has made slow progress in embedding good
equalities practice. This means that the Service is not in a position to be able to
demonstrate that it is meeting the needs of the whole community.
- A key weakness currently is the lack of a structured education and communication
programme to promote the waste minimisation message. Despite this, the waste
arising per head of population is low.
- The Council provides fair value for money, with below-average costs but relatively
poor performance on some key indicators. In the past the Council has not taken
advantage of external funding opportunities well. However, this is changing and
with improved partnership working with other councils and agencies the Council is
in a good position to see both improvements to the service as well as in value for
money.
- The contract for delivery of most of the service is due for renewal in 2008 and this
provides the Council with an important opportunity to improve the service. The
Council has drafted its own waste strategy, but is awaiting the production of the
Kent-wide one before it can confirm how it expects to proceed in the medium to
long term. At the same time, the decisions facing it add emphasis to the
importance of ensuring that councillors are fully aware of the issues facing them if
they are to play a leading role in promoting the service in the community.
Dover District Council Wasteline: 01304 872428
E-mail: waste@dover.gov.uk
