Agenda and minutes

The Council welcomes engagement from members of the public. To speak at this meeting please register no later than 24 hours prior to the date of the meeting via democracy@southkesteven.gov.uk

There were none.

Democratic Services presented apologies from Councillors Emma Baker, Charmaine Morgan, and Max Sawyer.

Councillor Manterfield presented apologies from Councillor Gloria Johnson.

The Leader of the Council presented apologies from Councillors Richard Cleaver and Philip Knowles.

Members are asked to disclose any interests in matters for consideration at the meeting.

Councillor Ben Green disclosed an interest in item seven, the Implementation of the Tree Planting Strategy 2026/27, and stated that he would leave the Chamber for the duration of the item.

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 March 2026 was proposed, seconded and AGREED as an accurate record.

To consider actions agreed at the meeting held on 3 March 2026.

The outstanding action was completed prior to the meeting.

There were none.

The Implementation of the Tree Planting Strategy 2026/27 was presented by the Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste.

It was good practice to put newly planted trees on a maintenance programme for two to five years. Maintenance included regular watering, weeding, topping up mulch around the trees and adjustment of stakes, ties and guards.

The Council planted 79 new amenity trees in 2024/25 and 145 new amenity trees in 2025/26. This meant having 224 newly planted trees on a

maintenance programme.

In the planting season 2026/27 it was proposed that 44 nursery standard trees, 14 half-standard trees and 74m of native hedgerow would be planted across 16 sites. A summary of the planting sites was provided in table 1 of the report. Plans showing the locations of the proposed planting and the selected species/cultivars for each site were provided in appendix 1 of the report.

The tree establishment budget, approved as part of the budget setting process for 2026/27, was £51,500.

During discussions, the following comments were made:

-       It was confirmed that consultation for additional planting was under way, further to the plans already agreed by the Environment Committee.

The Implementation of the Tree Planting Strategy 2026/27 was noted by the committee. 

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED to hear the Waste Policy Update next on the agenda.

The Waste Policy Update was introduced by the Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste.

The Refuse and Recycling Operational Policy document provided the residents of SKDC with an outline of the services provided and helped to manage their expectations regarding service delivery. Furthermore, it acted as a guide to decision-makers on how to handle issues and ensured that any problems were dealt with fairly and transparently.

The current Refuse and Recycling Operational Policy indicated a start time of

07:30am for collections. However, since the rounds were restructured in late 2025, each round could have around two more hours work to cover on residual collection weeks. Due to this increased workload, crews were regularly missing the deadline for final tipping at the Waste Transfer Station (WTS). Discussions with Lincolnshire County Council were productive and they agreed to open the WTS for an additional thirty minutes. This change would not mitigate the entire issue and to address this, SKDC agreed to explore moving the collection start time forward by 30 minutes to 07:00am.

This report also sought to change Bank Holiday working with a commencement date of Easter 2027. The following Bank Holidays were impacted: 

• Easter Monday,

• Early May Bank Holiday,

• Spring Bank Holiday, and

• Summer Bank Holiday.

It was recommended that the collections which fall on the Bank Holidays outlined above take place on the scheduled collection day. Staff would be paid at the same overtime rate as they were for the Saturdays, however, these days would be included within their contract and therefore the risk of service failure would be reduced.

An updated Draft Refuse and Recycling Operational Policy was included within Appendix One of the report.

During discussions, the following comments were made:

-       A Member noted a change within the policy relating to the timeframe that residents had to notify the Council of a missed bin and highlighted that this may cause an adverse impact on vulnerable residents who don’t use the internet. For this reason, the Member suggested maintaining the status quo. The Member also suggested offering a rebate for any residents whose bin had been missed during the recent heatwave. The Leader of the Council rebuked the suggestion of the rebate as fees were paid for the collection service across the year as a whole, rather than per collection. He also pointed out that the administration cost of calculating who would qualify and implementing the rebate would not make it financially viable.

-       The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste acknowledged that under the intense working conditions during the heatwave there had inevitably been some instances of missed bins but recognised that waste crews navigate the logistical challenge of collecting approximately 100,000 bins a week across the district and only tend to see a 1-2% miss-rate. Furthermore, to assist vulnerable residents the Council operated an assistance scheme.

-       The Cabinet Member noted that Fixed Penalty Notices  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Corporate Plan 2024-27: Key Performance Indicators Report - End-Year (Q4) 2025/26 was introduced by the Leader of the Council.

This report was the fourth of the reporting cycle and covered the period January to March 2026 (Quarter 4 2025/26).

Appendix A presented the overall performance against the eleven actions being presented in this session. Commentary by the responsible officer was provided for each action. Performance is summarised using a RAG system as follows:

Eleven of the actions were rated Green. These were actions which were on or above target as planned.

Zero actions were rated as Amber, these were those off target by less than 10% or where milestone achievement was delayed but with resolution in place to be achieved within a reasonable timeframe.

Zero actions were rated as Red. These were actions that were significantly below target.

The Leader noted that the current Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) timeline meant that the vesting day for the successor authority would coincide with the expiration of the South Kesteven Corporate Plan 2024-27. Following this expiry, the authority would likely be working under Section 24 restrictions.

During discussions, the following comments were made:

-       A Member suggested using PowerBI to create a resident-facing dashboard of KPI performance to aid transparency. The Leader acknowledged and supported measures to aid transparency and the Policy Officer confirmed that there was already a Corporate Plan Dashboard on the Council’s website.

-       It was queried whether the costs of fly tipping had been recouped through enforcement actions. The Leader did not believe so but the Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste highlighted that South Kesteven were not an outlier in this and a penalty structure was in place having previously been presented to the committee.

-       A Member expressed support for SKDC’s proactive approach to fly tipping.

The Corporate Plan 2024-27: Key Performance Indicators Report - End-Year (Q4) 2025/26 was noted by the committee.  

The Food Waste Policy Rollout - Verbal Update was presented by the Head of Waste Management and Market Services.

Appendix One outlines the verbal update given.

During discussions, the following comments were made:

-       It was confirmed that there was not a cost recovery from selling food waste for anaerobic digestion because SKDC operated under a two-tier model where SKDC collect the waste, but it was disposed of by Lincolnshire County Council.

-       It was queried and confirmed that it was too early to evidence whether there was a trend of higher levels of pests at residences with communal bins.

-       A Member expressed appreciation for the assistance that officers had given to one of her residents.

The Food Waste Policy Rollout - Verbal Update was noted by the committee.

To consider the Committee’s Work Programme for 2026 – 2027.

The Work Programme 2026-27 was noted by the committee.

There was none.

The meeting concluded at 10.49.