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Are we good? Yeah, we can't. Brilliant, brilliant. [BLANK_AUDIO] Let's try that again. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Joint Waste Disposal Board. Being held here this morning at Bracknell Forest Council offices. And my name is Karen Roland, I am the chair, but I will immediately step down for item one, which is the election of the chair. So could I turn this over to Oliver to deal with that? It's me, Chair, just to say, so just to begin this meeting, as the first municipal meeting of the year, are there any nominations for chair for the year, please? Can I nominate Councilor Bowdoin, please? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can I second, please? Brilliant, are there any other nominations? Nope, I'll go over to you then, Chair, thank you. Thank you, that's appreciated. And next we go to the appointment of Vice Chair. And could I take any nominations for that? I have won myself, if I might. I'd like to nominate Helen Purnell for the role of Vice Chair for this year. I'm happy to second, Chair. Thank you, and are there any other nominations? There being none, then Helen Purnell is duly elected as Vice Chair for the year. So very good. Lizzie, do we have any apologies for Adam Absence going on to item three? We do, Chair, we've had apologies from Councillors Fishwick and Councillor Tempton. Thank you. Great, thank you. Do we have any declarations of interest? And Lizzie, as advised, while I read this out, probably so? I think you can just take it as read as in the paper. Are there any declarations of interest, either with members or indeed with officers? No, there being none. Great, we'll move on to item five. The minutes of the meeting of the last joint waste disposal board held on the 7th of March, 2024. And I'm happy to take comments from anyone. Okay, there being none, I would just like to point out something that I brought up with officers in, let me just say that's on page eight or item 29 in regards to reuse and repair strategy report wherein we asked for a final version of the strategy to be presented at this board meeting here in June. Could I ask officers why that's not in the report and what the plans are for going forward with that? Thank you. Thanks, Chair. No, I say an oversight on our part. We haven't stopped working on it. I think members may remember at the last meeting that we presented a draft strategy and I think it was broadly acceptable to everyone. I think it was wholly acceptable to everyone. But we said we would bring a final version back pending any comments. So that isn't in this report, and that's our oversight. I would just add, I suppose, on this item that we've got a pop-up shop happening, a reuse pop-up shop happening at the long-shot lane site on Saturday morning, and as part of that process, we're preparing and I think we're going to go and put them on items after this meeting. We've got a QR code on stickers, so when people purchase an item, they'll be invited to take part in a short survey on the reuse strategy and those sorts of ideas. So in a way, I suppose it's quite timely for us to be able to bring that back and any amendments that we would propose to that strategy, we'll bring back to the next meeting if that's okay. Thank you. Are members in agreement with that? Great. Okay, great. Good. Let's see if we could just note that. Otherwise, the minutes short of request from this chair here not to label the chair man at the bottom. I think we agreed that last year that we're not chair man or chair woman. We are simply chair here. Okay, so if everyone is happy with that, we can consider the minutes having been agreed. Are there any urgent items of business going on to item six? No, no, no, no. Thank you. On to item seven then, the meat of the meeting, and for that, we turn to Mr. Bert, if you would like to open up with the progress report and give members a highlight. Thank you. Thanks, apologies here. I'm going to hand over to Sarah if that's the case. Sorry. Yes, nice. Thank you. So, as previously requested, I've sort of taken the report as read. But I suppose there were just a few things that I was going to highlight or add in regards to the progress report. So, the first thing relates to the performance statistics. So, in the report, I have presented the recycling rates for the year that has just gone and compared these with the recycling rates from the previous year. In addition, you'll have noticed I've given you an extra handout this morning. So, this shows you performance over a longer period of time and also a comparison with some other local authorities. The provision of this information just follows on from a query that was raised by a Reading Councilor last week. And we thought that it might be helpful for you all to have a copy of the same information. So, essentially, on the first page, you can see the total household tons. And really, this is just to demonstrate that although we have seen an increase in household tons over the last year. Essentially, this is just a partial recovery from a downturn that we saw previously due to probably economic factors. And then on the second page, you've got the recycling rates. And there you will see that broadly speaking, the recycling rates for the RE3 councils have been increasing over the last five years. Whereas that's not necessarily what other councils have seen. So, happy to take any questions about any performance stats in a moment. But I suppose the second thing I wanted to raise in regards to the progress report was about the FlexCollect trial. So, just to confirm really that the expansion in Reading is still on track to go ahead as planned from the 24th of June. Meanwhile, we're getting some good data in from breaknell forest. So, our initial bag count data suggests quite a high participation rate, which is really good. We do need some more data just to validate our numbers. But, yeah, things are looking very healthy at the moment. So, we'll keep you up to date as that progresses. And the last thing I was just going to raise relates to the only decision item on this report, which is about large electricals. So, you'll have noticed that there is an opportunity for us to send some large electrical items for reuse. So, we're therefore proposing that we undertake probably a three-month trial. And that would just be an opportunity for us to understand the number of items that might be suitable for reuse, and hopefully to obtain a bit more of a breakdown in regards to where exactly in the world our items might go for reuse. So, yeah, happy to hand back to the chair for any questions or discussion. Thank you for that, Sarah. Do members have any questions in regards to this? To what Sarah's just covered off. Please. Well, I mean, just to say, as ever, it's a really helpful report and gives us an update where we're at. Obviously, there's a little bit of a watch on the contamination levels, so you mean to creep up a little. It's not significant at this point, but just something to watch and try to understand why that might be happening. And, of course, to note the rubble, kind of the building stuff, you know, that the likelihood of that costing is £21,000. It doesn't feel like that's okay. I don't know whether, you know, we can monitor it further and it might be something that we pick up later. It might be worth it that we're going to have a new government, because I think we all do think that's likely to happen. Whether it might be something we can raise subsequently to say, you know, we've been doing this now and actually it's not good that we're having to face additional costs without that being recognised as a new burden of some description. So, really just to note that, and I'm very happy to see the opportunity for us to look at a reuse opportunity. You know, that doesn't need monitoring. You do need to check that how many of them actually pass the tests and can be reused. I think it's probably the big thing for us to look at, but all good stuff. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Over to Jordan Montgomery, our new member here from Woking Emperor Council. Welcome, and please go ahead. Graham, thank you. Just want to raise points on item 5.36 and 37. So, regarding for we collection, Oliver and I discussed it previously. It's mainly regarding batteries and vapes in terms of small individual electrical items that we're doing disposed of. We've got here that the sort of tender was put out for that to be included. Was that to be included within the existing service or was it going to be a separate contractor that you were seeking? And second to that, you've said that moving on, you're working with RE3 contracted to develop alternative proposals. What's, can we get a bit more information just in what that regards and what that may end up looking like? Sarah's working on that very closely and I think, first thing, there are two processes. They're the same funding process, aren't they? So, yeah, apologies. Before I answer the question, I was going to hand it. So, yes, we did a funding application last year, which would have been for a series of we banks. So, they would have accepted a range of small electrical appliances like irons and toasters. We would also have been able to recycle vapes via these banks, but not batteries. Unfortunately, at the time, we weren't able to find a supplier who would have been able to service the banks in accordance with the specification that we put out. So, yes, we are looking at alternatives that we might be able to apply for funding for this year. So, we are revisiting the idea of electrical banks. So, this continues to be something that having spoken to colleagues in the collection teams still seems to be something there's a lot of enthusiasm for. So, we're having conversations with our contractor FCC about any potential ways that that might be able to work. But we're also touching on other potential ideas that we might want to look into further, so that could include anything from collections potentially at libraries, or it could be a sort of roaming vehicle that we advertise when it's in a particular area and get residents to bring out electrical items to those. But, yeah, just in the process of doing some research at this point, and obviously we'll keep you updated as that progresses. Let's hope that answers the question. No, thank you for that, Sarah. Councilor Terry, you didn't really, your points are really more points. There's nothing we really needed to have officers come back on. Okay. Councilor Montgomery, does that satisfy your understanding at this point? Yes, it does. I would like a bit more of a break down in what we are going back to the contractor and asking for an idea of the scale of some of these banks. Are we talking to the large single banks in with the fossil banks and as such, or are we talking small ones within supermarkets at libraries like you discussed? Just an idea of travel in that regard. Sarah, if you'd like to come back. Yes, so in regards to the we banks, the idea would be that they would be situated at the glass bank sites. They would be large banks, very similar to sort of the textile banks that you find out around the boroughs. And yeah, the other ideas, they're not fully formed at this stage, so I can't tell you sort of how many libraries or what size are containers or anything like that. But yeah, it is just things that we are investigating. And yes, in terms of what we're discussing with the contractor, it really is just getting their thoughts on how they think a service potentially could could work for us. And then we'd need to consider whether we need to go out and do another procurement exercise, I suppose. But yeah, early stages of having those discussions. Thank you for that, and hopefully that's cleared that question out. I know that that's something that we all have a concern about. And obviously we've had even through the smaller we and vapes, we've had a number of tragic instances with fires and things like that. So it's a concern that we all share as to how we're going to be dealing with small we. And then indeed, I wanted to go on at boring. If there's any other questions, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, just a quick question. I'm really, really over the moon with the participation rate in Bracknell, especially the initial figures. With regards to the households for a flex clextile that are not participating, what work is being done to try and encourage them to take up the opportunity? If any. Albert, Sarah, go ahead, Sarah. Yes, so we would, so obviously we've done this survey. So we've got an idea there of what residents think about our service. Obviously, it seems to be going very well for the people who are participating. But we're conscious that a lot of the responses obviously came from participating residents and not from the ones who aren't participating. So, particularly in Reading, where the indication of participation rate is quite a lot lower than it is in Bracknell. We are thinking about potentially trying to do another survey, potentially with a sort of prize draw, maybe if that can elicit some more responses and get more of an idea from people about why perhaps they're not participating. We're also obviously expanding the Reading trial to a wider demographic area in a couple of weeks time, and it will be interesting to see what impact that has as well because there might be a demographic sort of factor in regards to participation. But yes, that's where we are at the moment. Go ahead. Thank you, Sarah. That's helpful. There's obviously a lot of residents in Bracknell Forest who are quite upset about not being on the scheme. Are there any plans to increase the trial in Bracknell? Sarah? No, I suppose it's the short answer. So, under the Flex Collect scheme, it was for a certain number of properties to be involved. So, Bracknell has gone straight to the 10,000 property mark. Reading is currently at 4,000 properties. It will go up to 10,000 at the end of this month. So, that will be our trial area, and that will last us through to 2025. At that point, obviously, we'll have a decision to make about whether we expand. But yes, for the purposes of the trial, we've now got our participating households. Thank you for that question. And, yeah, I think we all recognized, Councillor Purnell, that this was something that was kind of a controlled situation. We weren't going to be able to go much better, but as members, we were all terribly excited to do anything we could. And, you know, the report I think we've found is very interesting, although it does kind of bear out on some level that what we kind of expected in terms of it not being the most profitable of methodologies. And we will have to take that decision unless there is change from the government, as far as I understand. Sarah, as you were suggesting, that the funding for the scheme would stop, and we will have to make a determination as to whether we're able to continue. So, you know, whilst I do find that, like, we all realized that was going to possibly be a bit of a risk, but it was a risk, I think, that we were all as members, if I remember correctly, willing to take. So, yeah, so let's see if it goes on. So, yes. So, are there other questions from members? If not, I will -- I just had a few questions, actually, in regards to Section 5.43, myself, in terms of the larger we reuse that we're actually asked to approve in the actions this morning. Could you give me or the members a bit more of an understanding about this three-month trial? We were just talking about the trial that we had there, and, you know, the fact that it's tenuous to kind of continue. It's -- so many people want to recycle, and they want to do more. And so, if we bring in something for three months, and then we draw back, I just wanted to know exactly how maybe that was going to be handled. Yes, so I suppose the two trials are quite different. So, in Flex Collect, obviously, that's a very publicly visible thing. So, residents know that they're participating, or they're not. In a way, the reuse trial is something that can be essentially done in the background, I guess. So, residents, when they give us over their items, don't necessarily know whether it's going for reuse or recycling, perhaps. So, yes, we can potentially send these items off for three months, gather some data, and then make a decision about what we want to do going forwards. And I don't know that that will particularly impact residents, if that makes sense. That's very helpful, at least from my understanding, because I guess you're talking about really just the items that are brought, obviously, to the sites, and then right. So, that's understood in much more comforting than going down a street and going, Hey, for three months, you can do this, and then we'll see. So, okay. So, that was one question I had. The other one that I want to throw out to members, and see, perhaps, if I'm the only one that feels this way, is in the review of the performance monitoring. So, that's sections 5.28 to section 5.34, where we're talking around the regular performance monitoring schemes, which was the contract, and that setting out of the standards was reviewed back in 2017. And again, reviewed in 2021, but whilst this talks a lot about what you all do behind the scenes in regards to that, this doesn't exactly tell us, and I know I'm pretty much sure that I've been down this road before. This doesn't actually tell us what you all are seeing off of that, and is there a way for, unless members think that that's unreasonable or whatever for us to better understand what that report is producing, and even to make a sample dip of that? And possibly, Sarah, if you could come back to us about what that might look like if we could do that. Yes, so I suppose I can produce something like a graph, which would show you the performance failures that the contractor identifies, and then the additional failures that I might identify on top. So these, yeah, essentially feed into some of the performance deductions that we make, but I suppose more importantly, it is just keeping a record of areas where we might need to improve. So, if that's helpful, I can seek to put together one of these. But I suppose what I would highlight is obviously, I don't know, I've been in this job for quite a while now, the contractor is quite used to being monitored, and I think that has had an impact. But yes, if there's anything in particular you'd like me to produce and share, I'm happy to do so. It's just my opinion, and I understand the structure's kind of ongoing, is just like, at least to understand what some of those things might look like and what those typical reactions, almost to do like a dip, and I realized that will probably be very busy in September. But either in September at the meeting after that, maybe if we could just have a sample understanding of what those reports kind of look like, and what kind of things are being highlighted to work be marked on, I guess. Yes, sorry, I think I understand now. Yes, no, we can certainly do that. Yes. Please go ahead. Chair, thanks. I actually think probably it would be informative to members to do a bit of the both of those things, because I think what you would see from what Sarah suggested is actually the amount of, I don't think there are any fundamental performance failures, we would pick those up very specifically if there were. I think you'll see the value of what Sarah is talking about in this report, the idea that when this contract was being negotiated, it was talked of as a self-monitoring contract, which pretty quick, you know, we've no, no, we're not, you know, not been done in a sort of dramatic or anything. It pretty quickly goes out the window that that will not work, self-monitoring, that we'll not cut it. So I think the monitoring that it's talked about here will show that Sarah is keeping on top of all of those things in monitoring. There's good liaison with the contract to their relationships and the sites. As you can see, if you visit them, operate very well, but these are the kind of numbers behind that. So I think a little combination of what Sarah talked about and what you were pushing for, I think, would work very well for members. Thank you. Thank you for that. Could members agree with that? Does something we might like to have come back? Okay. Very good. Okay. So if there's no other questions in that section from members, I see nothing there. Can we go to the recommendations in section 2.1 and 2.2? Members of the contents of this report, members approve that trial for the suitable large electrical items received with recycling centers as described in section 5. 5.43. Brilliant. Thank you. So next we go on to item 8, the communications report, and for that one, we do go over to Monica. Thank you, Chair. So just would like to put a few highlights from my report. First of them relates to the new recycling app that has been launched in March. I believe the progress with the app is going pretty well. We now have over 3,000 active users, feedback has been pretty positive and developers are quite keen to pick up any issues, any feedback that's been received to implement a straightaway. There have been already a few, some improvements that have been done to especially streamline building a new database and the process for residents. We are adding a lot of new drop of points as well, so there has been a lot of good progression coming up within the last weeks. Simultaneously, we are working on a key feature that we are looking for has been notifications. So some significant progress has been done for all of the councils. We connected with IT teams as well, and developers now building the solutions. Hopefully we'll be able to see and test it fairly soon. Next, a really positive campaigns that we've been holding recently. One of them is a foil campaign that we did over Easter. We had a great engagement both online and social media as well, directly with schools. We were building further up on that, so we now are visiting the schools of the winning pupils as well to use that time to deliver some recycling awareness talk. And that's been really, really well received, and we are pretty pleased with the participation. We had over 30 schools actively participating, so we were really pleased with the results. Simultaneously, community work could be noticed with the compost scheme as well. We had over 100 groups that applied for the compost and have been assigned back, so I know now that they are regularly coming to our sites to collect these bags and publishing lots of fabulous projects that they are using it. So hopefully the knowledge of the regrow and the process of garden wise and composting, I think it's spreading, and people are a little bit more understanding and the reason we are doing this. And I think it's brilliant to see all of the benefits that the project is doing for our communities. I'm conscious that Sara provided quite a lot of other influx collect, so I'm going to skip that point. And Oliver already mentioned our re-use pop-up shops that are happening this Saturday, so we have one more event scheduled. Now in Bracknell, next Saturday, however we are conscious that we had the events happening in Reading and Bracknell, we do would like to have some things in there going on as well. In Walking Gum Barrow as well, so we will be actively looking for some suitable locations, and it will be a good test for us as a part of that strategy we've been discussing as well as to see how the events outside of the site could work as well. So we are now going to set some relevant locations to hopefully organize something just after a summer. And the last but not least, a really great update on the quite significant celebrations that we're holding this year. Partnership is celebrating 25th anniversary, which is showing a great dedication of all the full councils to work together. Perhaps Lizzie has a chance to put some slides, but not essential, but just to kind of highlight the significance of that celebration. We prepared a few slides as well that I would like the aims of the partnership showing the great work that's been done, progression, especially with the reduction of the landfill, but also a higher recycling rate has been a significant reduction of the carbon emission as well visible over the course of the years. In the report, I highlighted quite a good key stats as well that we all should be really proud for and quite a variety of significant projects that all of the councils took part over the years. Thank you, and I would like to invite everyone for any questions, please. Thank you, Monica, and could I go to members for any questions and happy anniversary, everyone? Councillor Purnell. Thank you, Monica. Just with regards to the scrap app, when I and several others used it, used it initially, there were some issues with some quite regular standard run-of-the-mill products, like Chris Packett's, won't end brand Chris Packett. It's not coming up on the app. Have all those sort of teething issues been ironed out now? Monica. Thank you, Chair. We try and go best to pick up any missing items. Obviously, with the wealth of the scale of the products on the market, new items coming in, it's possible to notice things that are not in a database. That's why the app has the feature to just place by the user information what sort of product and packaging case the user has in front of the eyes and will be able to receive the direct guidance. However, it has been a lot of work done related to the differentiation between different types of plastics, specifically to aid with the Flex Collect trial. Very good. Go ahead. Yes, thank you, but I imagine it's almost an impossible task for the four developers. When a resident puts in their own, selects the drop-down boxes, is that information checked, or is that then become the rule? Go ahead, Monica. Thank you, Chair. No, the information has been checked, so it's been reviewed specifically now. Initially, it's every request and addition and search is being checked on the backend. There is possibility certain users, like myself, has been assigned, if I assign something, it's being considered as a rule. Going forward, the idea will be that if I believe five users type the same information, that would become as well a rule. However, at the moment, just to ensure that everything is correct, developers are checking it, and also help they specifically picked up on that comment, that perhaps some of the list of items and packaging are a little bit too detailed, so that has been cut out and streamlined. So residents can user can only see at top the most common used items to prevent any of the mistakes, because mistakes could happen just by basically logging the wrong item. Thank you. Councillor Cherry. Well, I just don't want to miss the opportunity to reflect on 25 years, really. I mean, some of us who've been around a while, maybe in different places, remember from a distance, this being a thing that we're going to create together, and remember the shock, really, of the landfill tax hitting local authorities and how much that was and what significant impact it's going to have. So here we are 25 years later, and actually this small paper, in a way, you know, part of our communications report, actually highlights a real achievement, you know, a really significant achievement, and a no small part to all of some of the people around the table, Oliver, in particular who's managed that. Again, some of us who've been around a little while know that the contract wasn't always a happy place, it wasn't always a good place, and there were times when there was things that needed to be resolved. But here we are. I mean, I think to have got landfills waste down to 6% is no mean feat, really, you know. And we have all become much, much more aware about climate change and the need to reduce emissions and all of those things. I think we sort of forget we started this journey in many ways, a long time ago, and to hit that target. Now, 50% recycling is, yeah, ish, we haven't all quite hit it in the way we'd like to hit it exactly, but clearly some of you authorities have done a bit better than redding. But we're there all there are abouts a lot of the time, and again, that's a significant thing, and I think because we do need to do more, and we do need to do better for the planet and the climate and everything else, I don't think we're always given the credit as to the authorities for actually going with this model and making it work, and over time refining it and making it work. Having cobrocked down the road has been really fortunate, so whilst we're not allowed to claim it in recycling terms, the waste to energy is also significant, you know. It's a really good way that we've been able to move other materials out of landfill, and actually, I don't know if they're still making the building blocks or whatever, but building things, you know. It's like capturing carbon, isn't it? Caron, you know, in that way, and reusing it. So, you know, this shouldn't pass by without a really big sort of note to ourselves that says, actually, in Berkshire, this partnership has been really significant and delivered a huge amount in terms of our journey towards zero emissions, recycling, all of the things that we want in terms of, you know, the future of our planet. So, you know, let's just say, well done, and maybe later in the year when we're not all so busy, some of us counselors worrying about general elections and such things, to perhaps celebrate that a bit more. Thank you, Councillor Terri, and despite the fact that you're younger than I am, you have been around for a good bit more, and really probably as the senior member here, I really, really thank you for that, because it really is no small feat, and the, whilst the political makeup has changed drastically, and I've been on this board only a short time myself, actually, it has always worked, and we've probably seen pretty much every political party, bar one, I would think, come and go, and we've always managed to have that relationship, have that openness to be able to speak with each other, because recycling and answering the climate emergency is something that every party agrees on, some more than others, I would argue, but indeed, thank you so much for that, Councillor Terri, I think that's a really great way to, to, great thing to highlight, and I really appreciate that. And I actually wanted to come back to Monica to see, in regards to that, what, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry, okay, yeah, go ahead. Sorry, Chair, just in the interests of Pader and being in the pre-election period, I think we should be careful about some of the comments that we're making today in regards to other parties and recycling rates, just so we're cautious and not accidentally making any judgments on which way the parties differ. Thank you, Councillor Montgomery, it is a point well taken, and I would argue that we probably haven't mentioned any parties, but thank you for that reminder. Monica, if I could come back to you in regards to the 25th anniversary and say what else we might do to get that out to other councils here and to see how we could ensure that all three councils are fully aware of the 25th anniversary. Thank you. Thank you, Chair, and I'd like to say thank you for all of the reflections. It's really, really meaningful. Yes, so the idea is to do, celebrate, to be proud of all of the achievements. So, as I mentioned, we have a bit of the presentations. We got a brochure as well that there would contain some highlights as well that we will begin to distribute an irrelevant time amongst members and placed, obviously, on the website and to make, hopefully, something that will be noticeable by residents as well. Perhaps we will use some as well creativity to publish some information as well at the site as well, in the form of some banners that we can display as well, so we probably can notice that significant anniversary. But, all in all, definitely just to at least distribute amongst the councillors and members and officers, that's definitely, I imagine, a must. Thank you for that. And would members be in general agreement on that? Okay, very good. Thank you. I just wanted to say thanks to Councillor Terry for the comments. Obviously, it's not on my behalf, but I think it's very important to mark what achievement the councillors have made. There's always that thing, isn't there? If you're a hammer, every problem is a nail, and I work in partnerships, and so I feel every solution is to put more people in and collaborate more and everything. But I think there is some sense in that, looking forward to the kind of challenges the councillors will have, and I think the three councils here, particularly when we talk about things like Berkshire Prosperity Board and collaboration across boundaries, we are able to call upon an incredible amount of experience, experience from people around the table, not just from this partnership but from other partnerships, and how it feels to be in partnership with people and to kind of give away a little bit to get a bit more back. So without me waffling on forever, because I probably could do, thank you very much, and we will come back with something at an appropriate time just to kind of mark that. Thank you very much, Chair. Very good, thank you. Do members have any other questions as to this section of the Communications Report? There being none, I would thank Monica for that report, and let us just note the actions is really just that we note the contents of the report, and so there appear to be no problems there. Okay, so then I believe we can move on to item 9, the legislation report, and for that we do turn over to Oliver. Thank you. Thanks, Chair. So again, in the sort of spirit of report taken as read, highlights really are, at the end of the last meeting, we covered our joint response to the weak consultation that we were going to put in. That went in, we are now awaiting the outcome, and I guess, like everything else, that will be partly delayed as a result of general election, so on and so forth. So we wait for that to come back, and the report details some of the things that was talking about. The principle bits of this report really are around the other forthcoming legislation that's slightly more fleshed out than the weak consultation. So the exemption within simpler recycling was confirmed, which would allow councils to take advantage of what we would call a co-mingled collection bit of kind of terminology. What does that mean for the public? It means that we could collect glass alongside all of our dry recyclables. The previous version of the legislation talked about that being a possibility, but the exemption wasn't confirmed, and it has been confirmed by government. And again, I suppose I must caveat, all of this could change in theory, but we work on the principle that given that it's part of the Environment Act, it's likely to be flowed through and sensible probably to assume that that's going to be the case until we know otherwise. So that exemption is in place. From that comes some work that's going on in the background around the potential cost to amendments to our recycling plant, so that it would sort glass from the current mix of recycling. That's going on, and our contractor is working very well with us. I also know that the councils are looking at the potential costs of collection from that, and in the spirit of doing a good business case, what it would look like to collect glass separately. So that works going on, and we will bring that back to members as soon as possible. The second part in terms of the kind of news since we last met is around the expectation that residual waste would be collected in the words of the government no less than fortnightly. Their explanation is that that's a bit of a long-held government position, despite having a consultation in which over 80% of people said, No, just let us get on with it, please, guys. I suppose the important point, and hopefully have some reassurance to those councils that do a three-weekly collection of residual waste, is that it would be written into statutory guidance. This no less than fortnightly would become statutory guidance, and what we know about that, and has been stressed in fairness, has been stressed by civil servants, is that statutory guidance is not legally binding, you have to have regard to it. And I think the other thing about it is that the performance regime that will be brought in would give Bracknell, in this case, plenty of occasions in which to assess the value of the collection services being operated and to effectively justify both it's going to use the word effective too many times there. It's efficiency and it's effectiveness. So I think that without being, I wouldn't want anyone to be too sanguine. I think we need to see exactly what's going to happen in black and white before we make any conclusions, but at the present time, I think the best thing we can say is that it looks like it, you know, we can live with that. That's really important. The next part very quickly is around the extended producer responsibility, and I've sort of talked a little bit in the report around the performance regime about the way that councils will be put into performance cohorts and the way that that might be used as a means of determining the levels of funding and those sorts of things. We talked previously around the kind of program of understanding when that funding is going to come in. We should learn later this year the broad level of funding we're going to receive, have that confirmed in the spring thereafter and then finally get some money through the bank in sort of 2026 time. So I think that's probably it, and if that's okay, Chair, I'll hand over to you and members for any questions. Thank you, Oliver. Do members have questions on this section of the report? Okay. I just have a question or wish to highlight the section 5.29 to 5.32, I believe, about the UK emissions trading scheme and that consultation and how that will be prepared, Oliver and how members might go in having some kind of review of what we're going to be saying on that subject. Thank you, Chair. Yes. So, rather unfortunate timing really on this one, but so the consultation is due on the 18th and what we propose is to prepare a shared response and then to share that with members and senior officers outside of the board meetings for approval and kind of endorsement. As I love everyone to think that the consultation responses are all my own thinking, but invariably they're not. They are drawn from many meetings. You know, what everyone else is going to be saying in exactly the same way as well, and then it will be no different on this occasion. So I was an adept meeting yesterday. We've got a waste infrastructure development program. We were talking about acronyms the other day, weren't we? We dip. That's tomorrow. Next week, there's a Nord-O-1. We'll go through all of these later, okay? So I will be drawing from all of those and we'll liaise with officers, obviously, and put together a response for us and we'll send that out to be checked by people. Post-election, pre-18th of July. Very good. Thank you, all of us. That does include the second recommendation in items 2.1 and 2.2, members of the contents of this report. And that, indeed, the members approve the circulation draft response to the ETS consultation before the next joint waste disposal meeting in order to meet that deadline. Very good. And members are agreed with that. Brilliant. Super. Thank you. So this moves us to item 10, which will take us into the private section of this meeting, the exclusion of public and press, to consider the following motion pursuant to regulation for the local authorities, executive arrangements, access to information regulations, in February 2012, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 11, which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the local government at 1972, information regarding the financial or business affairs, any particular person. No representation has been received in response to the notice under interest. Okay. Local authorities, executive arrangements, meetings and access to information, England regulations, 2012. So, Lizzie, can we consent?