South Kirkby Community Liaison Group Meeting 13.10.2014
South Kirkby Community Liaison Group Meeting
Date: Monday 13 October 2014 Chair: Cllr Richard Forster Time: 6.10pm Minutes: Suzanne Daykin, Administrator, Shanks Location: The Grove, Stockingate, South Kirkby, Pontefract, WF9 3QF
Attendees Tom Allsopp (TA) Town Councillor, South Kirkby & Moorthorpe Town Council Wilfred Benson (WB) District Councillor, South Elmsall and South Kirkby, Ward 14 Dave Brown (DB) Senior Project Manager, Kier Infrastructure and Overseas Eric Burkes (EB) Local Resident Colin Fletcher (CF) Contract Director, Shanks Cllr Richard Forster (RF) District Councillor, Castleford Central and Glasshoughton,Ward 4 Julie Greenwood (JG) Strategic Waste Policy Manager, Wakefield Council Glynn Humphries (GH) Service Director (Cleaner and Greener), Wakefield Council Sally Hurn (SH) Project Co-Ordinator, Shanks Dan Jacobs (DJ) Strategic Waste Technical Manager, Wakefield Council Dominic Lally (DL) Project Manager, Shanks Cllr Steve Tulley (ST) District Councillor, South Elmsall and South Kirkby - Ward 14 Tony Ward (TW) Local Resident Greg Wilkinson (GW) Environment Agency
Apologies Cllr Michelle Collins (MC) District Councillor, South Kirkby and South Elmsall John Kirk (JK) Local Resident Sharon Paley (SP) Environment Agency Mike Walter (MW) Process Engineering Manager, Shanks
Non Attendance Kim Macfarlane (KM) Local resident Nanette Swain (NS) South Kirkby Residents Against Waste
Minutes
1. Welcome and Introductions – Richard Forster, District Councillor, Castleford Central and Glasshoughton Ward 4
RF welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions from the group were made.
2. Apologies – Chairperson
Apologies were received from those as listed above.
3. Minutes from the Previous Meeting held on 23 June 2014 – Chairperson
The minutes were reviewed on a page by page basis and were agreed a true record of the last meeting. JG proposed and DL seconded the minutes.
It was requested that future minutes have page numbers included.
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South Kirkby Community Liaison Group Meeting 13.10.2014
4. Matters arising from minutes of previous meeting 23 June 2014
Action Point 1, Section 7, Page 3 SH to advise the percentage of local people employed by Shanks across the Wakefield Contract. SH advised that this information had not been received from Shanks’ HR department but she would chase it up and endeavour to circulate the information with the minutes of this meeting or at the next meeting.
Action Point 2, Section 7, Page 4 SH to look into the possibility of providing a breakdown of employees showing qualifications and which geographical area they were from. SH advised that this would be answered in conjunction with Action Point 1.
ST asked for clarity regarding any current employee of WMDC that would be TUPED over to Shanks following the closure of existing sites and the opening of new sites. CF noted that an explanation of this would be given under section 6, Service Delivery and Programme of this meeting.
Action Point 3, Section 9, Page 5 SW to report to the group following a visit to the Shanks Visitors Centre near London. CF advised that an update would be given under section 5, Service Delivery and Programme of this meeting.
Action Point 4, Section 10, Page 6 MC to provide an update of the community project to update an existing playground at South Kirkby. GH advised that this action would be covered under section 8, Community Projects.
5. Project Overview – Julie Greenwood, Strategic Waste Policy Manager, Wakefield Council
JG advised that the update regarding year end data would be provided and circulated with the minutes of this meeting. It was also highlighted that the member’s seminar had been rescheduled for 29 October 2014. A: JG to provide year end data to Shanks for circulation with these minutes.
JG advised the group members that she was leading the Council team to ensure that the Contract runs smoothly and advised that good progress was being made in all areas. Shanks were operating all the HWRCs and Bring Sites as well as managing the waste disposal and treatment contracts. She further advised that Shanks were in the construction phase of providing the facilities at South Kirkby, Denby Dale Road and Glasshoughton and were continuing to make good progress in terms of service delivery. She confirmed that the Council were pleased with the progress that both Shanks and Kier were making.
6. Service Delivery and Programme – Colin Fletcher, Contract Director, Shanks.
CF commented on the following:
Recruitment – The transfer of WMDC staff to Shanks was completed in February 2013 when the Contract commenced. The majority of these staff are still working with Shanks, further staff have been employed from both the local area and throughout the region. A breakdown of the numbers and geographical areas of current employees would be provided as discussed earlier in the meeting. CF advised that the recruitment process had commenced for South Kirkby and it was anticipated that there would be between 45 and 60 job roles for skilled and semi-skilled individuals. All roles will have been advertised through various websites, locally, through the job centre plus and also via large local companies who may have excess members of staff, i.e. Kellingley and Maltby Collieries. A meeting had been held with CF, Julie Deeley and MW and it was agreed that she would arrange pre- screening and pre-interview meetings and then co-ordinate with Shanks to arrange interviews which would hopefully lead to recruitment.
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South Kirkby Community Liaison Group Meeting 13.10.2014
Operations
Whilst the construction of both the South Kirkby and Denby Dale Road sites are progressing, Shanks are committed to continue to meet service delivery within the Initial Services phase of the Contract. There are currently seven HWRCs but an agreed site closure/opening programme which will run from the end of January through to the end of March 2015 includes the opening of South Kirkby and Glasshougton new facilities along with the reopening of Denby Dale Road and the closure of Ferrybridge, Ossett and Castleford, Calder Vale Road, Fitzwilliam and Manface HWRCs. With the reduction of HWRCs from seven to four it anticipated there would not be any job losses as re- deployment across the sites will take place.
JG noted that there will be a six month restoration period to enable the Council to hand the site back to South Kirkby and Moorthorpe Town Council as agreed and set out within the planning conditions when Shanks cease operations at the Manface site.
CF commented that Simon Watts, Shanks’ Education Officer and SH had carried out various visits to other Education Centres to establish what was on offer at their visitor centres. The South Kirkby Visitor Centre would be in operation by September 2015 and the design and layout was still to be determined.
ST asked for clarification regarding employment and where the advertisements would be placed and commented that there could be people who are currently in employment who could have the required skills to fulfil Shanks recruitment requirements. CF advised there would be various online advertisements, local newspapers and the job centres. SH also advised that the advertisements would be placed on the Council website, Shanks’ website and the Contractor managed website.
CF commented that a recruitment open day had been held for the BDR project at Wath Library and there had been in excess of 800 people attending. A similar event was planned as part of the South Kirkby recruitment process.
7. Project Construction including Programme – Dominic Lally, Project Manager, Shanks and Dave Brown, Senior Project Manager, Kier.
DB advised the following:
South Kirkby
The Construction programme is currently on plan, the Autoclave, Reception Hall and the AD tanks had been handed over to the process contractors. The MRF is on target for handover. The Compost building is currently ahead of programme by approximately three to four weeks.
Denby Dale Road
Ahead of programme but problems have been encountered regarding the groundworks. Steelwork on site according to programme.
Glasshoughton
On programme
DB commented that the safety record on sites was very good. He also commented that as a result of previous work carried out and the relationship with Julie Deeley, a local resident had been employed by Kier as an administrative assistant. She had now passed her NVQ qualification and had received a promotion within Kier.
DL advised that the majority of the infrastructure was complete at South Kirkby. The next phase is the
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South Kirkby Community Liaison Group Meeting 13.10.2014
processing phase, the compost building and the recycling plant work will start later this year and work within the residual waste building was underway.
8. Community Projects – Glynn Humphries, Service Director (Cleaner and Greener), Wakefield Council
GH advised that a list of community projects had been produced, details of which would be circulated with the minutes of this meeting.
DB advised that further ideas had been put forward but due to site commitments he had not had the chance to look into this any further. DB noted his concerns regarding the lack of publicity around the community projects that Kier had been involved with.
JG noted that the list needed to be updated and circulated and then discussions could be held with the press office regarding a press release into the local newspaper.
RF commented it would be good to have the list available for the members’ seminar at the end of the month. A: GH to arrange a list of community projects to be updated and circulated. A: DB to send list of community projects that Kier funded to GH.
9. Environment Agency – Greg Wilkinson, Environment Agency
GW commented that there had been little input from the Environment Agency at South Kirkby within the last three months. He commented that he had been involved with the BDR Project which is slightly ahead of the South Kirkby Project and there were lessons to be learnt which could be transferred to the South Kirkby Project.
10. Any Other Business
AOB1: TA – Site Visit TA asked if it would be possible to arrange a visit to South Kirkby site for local Councillors. A: Shanks to investigate the possibility of arranging a tour at South Kirkby for local Councillors.
AOB2: TA – Site Expansion TA asked if there any intention to expand the site at South Kirkby. GH advised there was a piece of land to the north of the site and the Council were looking at all options. He advised that the Council were working with their regeneration colleagues to look at potential opportunities, and that a consultation exercise would be carried out in the first instance.
AOB3: TW – Production of heat TW asked if the site at South Kirkby had the facility to produce power or heat that can be reused. DL advised that there will be an Anaerobic digestion system as part of the process which allows heat to be produced which would be used within the site. JG noted that there are various proposals but any excess heat could facilitate the heat of these units and it is being looked at proactively.
AOB4: WB Plans for additional units WB queried that on the original plans for the South Kirkby facility there was some units to be built to remove waste such as aluminium and asked if this was correct. JG commented that there was a proposal for a sustainable growth park. The principle of this was to take some of the waste material from the processes at South Kirkby and have starter units where this material could be reused in an innovative way. The Council would be interested in any social enterprise that could take compost from the facility to make up planters etc, using local employment. Brief discussions were held regarding reuse, and any proposals would be put back to the group for consultation.
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