The Overview and Scrutiny Committee was scheduled to consider the draft Equality and Equity Action Plan for 2025-2028 and review the performance of Street Services for the period of January to December 2025. The meeting's report pack also included details on declarations of interest and minutes from a previous meeting.

Equality and Equity Action Plan 2025–2028

The committee was scheduled to consider the draft Equality and Equity Action Plan 2025–2028. This plan outlines the Council's commitment to fostering a fairer and more inclusive borough by advancing equality of opportunity, eliminating discrimination, and embedding equity principles into service design, workforce practices, and decision-making. The plan is structured around seven key objectives:

• Objective 1: Leadership, management, and councillors acting in unison to achieve equity.
• Objective 2: Ensuring the Council's workforce, including senior leadership, is representative of the wider borough population through recruitment and development.
• Objective 3: Reviewing and ensuring the consistent, fair, and sensitive application of equalities policies and procedures across the Council.
• Objective 4: Embedding the Inclusive Language Guide throughout the organisation.
• Objective 5: Enhancing engagement with community forums to proactively involve communities in policies and programmes.
• Objective 6: Supporting disabled and neurodiverse staff and residents to thrive.
• Objective 7: Designing services around the needs of residents, embedding equality and equity from the earliest stage.

The report detailed achievements and actions for the upcoming year under each objective, drawing on data from HR dashboards and the 2021 Census. It also referenced the Council's commitment to the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty¹.

Street Services Performance

The committee was scheduled to review the performance of Street Services between January and December 2025. This report covered waste collection, waste disposal, street cleansing, and enviro-crime enforcement. Key areas of discussion included:

• Waste Collection: The service collects from approximately 127,000 households, with a positive performance in missed bin collections, averaging around 270 per month. The report noted the impact of growth in flatted properties on service demand.
• Street Cleansing: The service is responsible for cleaning 340 miles of public highway. A new street cleansing delivery model, implemented in June 2025, moved from mobile teams to barrows to enhance accountability and adapt cleansing frequency based on data. The report highlighted the Excellence in the Frontline award won by the Woolwich Town Centre Street Cleansing Team.
• Waste Disposal: The borough achieved 0% of waste going to landfill in the first quarter of 2025/26, a continuation of a trend towards diversion from landfill. Waste generation per household has generally declined since 2020/21, reflecting the impact of Towards Zero Waste policies.
• Enviro-crime Enforcement: The Enviro-Crime Enforcement Team's activities included issuing Fixed Penalty Notices for fly-tipping and breaches of notice, conducting Duty of Care inspections on commercial premises, and investigating waste-related cases. The report noted significant investment in this team as part of the Getting Things Done initiative.
• Programme Management: An extensive programme of projects is underway to address regulatory compliance, efficiency savings, and service improvements, driven by new legislation and Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) targets. These include initiatives related to food waste expansion, single shift waste collection, chargeable garden waste, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).

The report also detailed financial performance, human resources data including equalities data for the service, and performance metrics for waste collection, waste disposal, street cleansing, and enviro-crime enforcement. It also outlined legislative changes impacting waste policy and the programme of projects planned for the coming years.