The Overview & Scrutiny Committee Inquisition into the £40 million waste contract cock up has begun

It was a miracle, whether divine or not is impossible to say.

On Tuesday 15th June at 6.30pm at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, the number of apologies from Cllrs regarding the almighty cock up over the new Veolia/Council service failure regarding the failure to collect kerbside waste across vast swathes of the district, was unprecedented.

The committee met to set up a Task and Finish group  – the Inquisition  – to consider the significant issues relating to the Veolia/Council £40 million pound waste and street cleansing contract.

It was the Overview and Scrutiny Chairman Cllr Michelle Keutenius (Lab) (pictured), who requested that urgent scrutiny work take place following recent significant failures around the council’s waste and street cleansing contract.

Report OS/21/03 set out the proposals for the formation of a Task and Finish Group, including a suggested scope, and invites nominations for the Membership of the Group.

Cllrs who will sit on the Task & Finish Group are:

• Cllr Michelle Keutenius (Lab)

• Cllr John Wing (Green)

• Cllr Rebecca Shoob (Green)

• Cllr Peter Gane (Con)

• Cllr Gary Fuller (Lib Dem)

They will look at how the contract failed, contract management, street cleansing, complaint handling and the council’s role in the £40 million pound cock up. We’d ask them also to look at placing as much of the contract in the public domain, like other councils across the UK do.

We understand the Task and Finish Group will meet again this week to scope out more precisely who should be called to attend the  Overview & Scrutiny inquisition. We hope they will release this information as soon as it’s possible

We hope the Inquisition will be open to the public to sit in the gallery and also by webcam. That was not a term of reference mentioned by any Cllr present at the meeting (quelle surprise).

We ask that a limited number of the public who were affected by the Veolia/Council service failure from Romney Marsh, Folkestone & Hythe and the Villages, be allowed to offer their voice to this inquisition (politiely and constructively).

If the public are allowed no say, and no involvement, although they pay through the nose for this service, it will be clear to all residents, the Task & Finish Group will have treated them like mushrooms by keeping them in the dark and feeding them corporate bullsh*t. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.