The Communities and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) was scheduled to meet to discuss the rollout of food waste services, and to review its work programme for the 2025/26 council year. The committee was also expected to note the schedule of decisions made by the cabinet since the last meeting, together with the latest forward plan of key decisions.

Here's a breakdown of the key items on the agenda:

Provision of Food Waste Services

The committee was scheduled to discuss the provision of food waste services to households under the Simpler Recycling policy outlined in the Environment Act 2021. From 1 April 2026, local authorities in England must provide all households with a weekly food waste recycling collection.

The report pack detailed that Northumberland County Council had received £2,949,940 in funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for upfront capital investment, but considered this to be approximately £1,541,989 short of what was required to provide a food waste collection to all households in the county. An appeal had been submitted to DEFRA to address this shortfall.

The report pack presented two collection models for consideration:

• Option 1: Delivering collection services to the maximum number of properties using available funding, concentrating on areas with the highest density of housing, such as southeast Northumberland, and limited parts of central Northumberland including Morpeth and Ponteland.
• Option 2: Delivering collection services to the twelve main towns of Northumberland as identified in the Local Plan. These towns include Alnwick, Amble, Ashington, Bedlington, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blyth, Cramlington, Haltwhistle, Hexham, Morpeth, Ponteland and Prudhoe.

The report pack stated that Option 2 would exceed the full allocation of new burdens capital funding, leaving no funds for contingency.

The Cabinet had previously resolved that:

a) Cabinet supports the actions taken to submit an appeal to DEFRA to address the shortfall in new burdens capital funding allocated to Northumberland for the provision of a weekly food waste collection service to all households;

b) Cabinet agrees that pending the outcome of the appeal to DEFRA and also confirmation of new burdens revenue funding (announcement due in Spring 2025), that plans for the implementation of food waste collection services for 2026/27 are based on utilising the current level of new burdens capital funding allocated to Northumberland, noting that this would not enable food waste collections to be provided to all households;

c) Cabinet approves Option 1 as the preferred option for making best use of the new burdens capital funds received to date as it offers the most effective and efficient approach to providing food waste collections to the maximum number of households in the county, as set out in Section 5 of this report;

d) authority be delegated to the Executive Director of Place and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment, Rural and Farming to select the settlement areas that will be included in the Option 1, Phase 1b roll out of food waste collections to enable the timely implementation of the further expansion of the service to fully utilise any remaining capital new burdens funding following implementation of Phase 1a.

Communities and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee Monitoring Report

The committee was asked to consider its work programme for the 2025/26 council year. Issues identified by the committee for inclusion on the work programme include:

• Local Cycling Walking Infrastructure Plans development
• Northumberland Road Safety Strategy
• New Section 106 system¹
• Green / Open spaces review
• Tree and Woodland Strategy

The report pack also summarised what the committee looked into last year, including highways maintenance, the North East Local Transport Plan, Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service Annual Performance, storm resilience, the Great Northumberland Forest, the Library Service Redesign and Development, and Places for People Leisure (PPL).

Forward Plan of Cabinet Decisions

The committee was scheduled to note the schedule of decisions made by Cabinet since the last meeting together with the latest Forward Plan of key decisions.

The Forward Plan included the following items:

• Future of kerbside recycling collections under Simpler Recycling
• Levelling Up Deep Dive: Town Centre Living Extra Care Facility
• Northumberland Line Update
• Summary of New Capital Proposals considered by Officer Capital Strategy Group
• Ashington Regeneration Programme Update
• Food & Feed, Safety & Standards Service Plan 2025/26
• Integrated Domestic Abuse Services for Northumberland – Permission to Tender and Award Contracts