Start of recording ¶
00:00:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Good afternoon everybody and welcome to the Services and Organisation Committee of Tuesday the 12th of October. Before we begin I'd like to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land upon which we meet, the Kabi Kabi or Kabi Kabi people, and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. We'll start item 1, attendance and all in attendance. No apologies today. Confirmation of minutes from the previous meeting. Move Councillor Wilkie, seconded Councillor Stewart. All in favour? Thank you councillors. No presentations or deputations today Mr CEO. We'll move right on with the reports for consideration of the committee. Item 1, Noosa FM lease at the J. Ash, would you like to give us a bit of an overview of the item? Speaker 8: Sure, thank you. This report is trying to resolve something that's been going on for a number of years between Council and Noosa FM. They've been a tenant at the J, an anchor tenant at the J since I've been in 2006.
00:01:00 And when we opened we had a lease arrangement in place with Noosa FM which provided for a relatively low level of rent to begin with and then it was to ratchet up over the years. The short story along the way is that the station felt they didn't have the financial capacity to make those payments so that there were some interim arrangements in place to have lower levels of rent and that all came to a head in 2018 when we came to Council at the time and proposed that we would extinguish that previous lease and replace it with a shorter term lease at a reduced rate with a couple of options at the end to roll it over year by year whilst the station tried to get some stability. There has been a lot of instability in that community group for a long time. Several changes in committees, different views every time the committee changed and the financial position. of the station was in question for a period of time as well. Over the last couple of years or since that time we didn't actually formalise the lease
00:02:00 to the point where we had that document but we did make the changes to the rental rate which was the main thing for them at the time so we reduced that back down to about six thousand dollars a year. We didn't formalise it because there was still a lot of instability and we didn't want to go through that process if it was all going to fall apart anyway. So credits to the station over the last couple of years the committee has actually been quite stable. The President and Sabella has done a great job of bringing them together settled things down and the financial position of the station is actually in a better state now than what it has been over the last couple of years. So as Council's management representatives we feel now is the right time to give both parties a little bit more certainty over the coming years. We think they've earned the right to have that lease extended. And what we're proposing today is that we we do proceed with formalising that with an initial period of three years at that just over six thousand dollar a year rate.
00:03:00 And then with two further options of three years each which would be at Council's sole discretion. So if we felt that again there was a level of instability or it wasn't working out or the station wasn't delivering what we expected in terms of community value we would have that option to consider things every three years. But if the station does a great job and continues to deliver value then they've got that almost 10-year period there if all options are activated where they know that the J is their home and they can they can plan accordingly. Councillor Jurisevic: Any questions? Mayor Stewart: I've got a couple. Do we subsidise and just on page six Ash we talk about yeah do we subsidise any other rental assistance or rental subsidies for other organisations community groups? Speaker 8: Uh yeah I guess it's a it's a little bit hard to quantify sometimes um it's a bit of a unique position at the J there because we did have the space commercially valued and that was part of the calculation or to
00:04:00 be used as part of the calculation for the rent at the time so it was a little bit more obvious to us there. I guess if you were to apply a similar methodology to other community leases for sports clubs or halls or rooms or whatever it might be and had a full commercial valuation put on it and then looked at what they paid then yes there would be a significant subsidy as well it's probably Councillor Jurisevic: just a bit more obvious. It wouldn't be any community group that pays any sort of commercial Speaker 8: level of uh yeah we have um I guess for community groups where they have an operation that is commercial in nature for example Nursa Gymnastics Club, Montessori School, University of Sunshine Coast at the J also and to a lesser extent the radio station. Surf Life Station? I'm not familiar with their leases but I think that's a little bit different but certainly in community facilities in my teams the approach has been if they've got the capacity to pay there
00:05:00 and that kind of matches up with their business model then they pay at those higher rates as opposed to a true community organization that might be kind of you know very very small if any revenue streams completely volunteer run very small budgets and needing of a space to deliver what they do to the community but no capacity to pay then that's where the much lower rates are are applied. I think the other thing to remember is when the J was constructed that Nursa FM were part of that planning process. The space was kind of custom built to accommodate them and at the time they were very comfortable with the idea of a commercial lease that was going to ratchet up to be paying two-thirds cash component of that valuation but what's changed since then is that the station has had a lot of disruption but also that broader model for community radio stations has changed significantly and it's harder for them to generate revenues of a commercial scale Councillor Lorentson: from advertising and sponsorship etc. Thank you. On page six Ash so just follow up what Clare was
00:06:00 saying it says the resultant outcome under the scenario is that council provides total cash and in-kind support to Nusa FM to the value of approximately $54,000 per annum. This is a significant level of financial support and is a matter that should be fully understood prior to council endorsement of this report's recommendation. My question and I'm not disputing the social value community radio we need it. Have you ever actually gone out to your community and asked um whether they were okay with the cost of supporting um the Nusa FM station at this location um has that ever been undertaking some type of community engagement? No we've never gone out to the
00:07:00 Speaker 8: community to uh to see what the broader view is there on on the possible uses of the day and and how we should do that. I think one thing to remember is even though there's been a commercial valuation put on it there are limitations for what we can actually do with that space because it is a community building so it's not as simple as putting a full lease sign up the front and finding you know the highest willing custom built or radio extension yes not not just that the building wouldn't suit everyone but even in terms of what we can do with it based on the building's zoning you know we couldn't go and lease that space to uh you know an accounting firm or a legal firm that was looking to have um you know commercial office set up there in a community building so yeah I guess it is a significant subsidy and the fact that council also provide the community alliance grant in terms of cash payment on top of that it's something that you know council need to be aware of and to consider uh but it's not something that we've engaged the community on to
00:08:00 Councillor Lorentson: to get their thoughts. Has a social return on investment ever been undertaken for something like the Nusa Jane and Stewart because I think um might be a worthwhile undertaking? Given that the benefits are derived through community benefits um rather than financial benefits? Speaker 8: Yeah we we've never done a piece of work that tries to quantify that in specifics um I guess we measure things like utilization ticket sales and um look at how much the building's been used and how many interactions we've got the cost per visit etc etc we have some metrics but we haven't haven't gone to the point of trying to put a you know to quantify that social value or or translate it to a dollar value across the broader community. It's also very hard with the radio station as well to get accurate figures on total number of listeners and how long they're listening for and you know what does that mean to the locals and what would it mean if they weren't there.
00:09:00 Councillor Lorentson: So that's how you're using the variables like the same way? Speaker 8: Uh it's very hard to get um detailed granular data on it because it's they use the listener estimates that come from um various radio surveys and they extrapolate that out across different regions to to try and get a reasonable figure but it's it's hard to know for sure. Councillor Wilkie: Ash if I heard you correctly you're saying that if that was a commercial valuation done it's not a space that you could lease out to a commercial business? Speaker 8: No so yeah I guess it's it's a little bit contradictory in that regard because the the methodology for a arriving at the valuation is to say if this was you know 140 square meters in the junction available for lease on a commercial basis what would it go for but we can't actually proceed with that. Councillor Wilkie: Okay so for that on that basis I've got a question is is a commercial valuation really relevant
00:10:00 in this circumstance given that the the intention of the space was always to house a community organization and it's all it's been used for that purpose ever since and it cannot house a commercial venture so in a sense is the commercial valuation um uh relevant and is it misleading um in the sense that we're not actually paying the difference between the 52 000 and the 6000 that they're paying to that ratepayers aren't subsidizing that that um that organization it's not money coming out of council's pocket it's like a it's it's a notional figure and it's uh the question I have is a commercial valuation still relevant here if it can't be leased as a commercial space and it's always intended as a community use and there are other community groups throughout the Shire that have rents at a figure commensurate to the 6000 that you've you've done here and I think that's I think you've done good work there to support the community group but I do have
00:11:00 questions about the relevance of the commercial valuation yeah in this circumstance yeah I think Speaker 8: it's a fair fair question and a good point the reason that we had the valuation done was because it was required as part of the lease so I guess we've got that knowledge it probably wouldn't be something we would go and do if it wasn't a requirement I think it puts into perspective the approximate value of that space you know it's it's a great building in an amazing location it's not you know a town hall that's in a state of disrepair you know 20 minutes from town that doesn't have any other kind of obvious use I think there are certainly other possibilities for it but the point around though we can't go get 54 000 a year cash for that space so it's probably not the most reliable benchmark I think the only thing I'd add to that is that when the building was Speaker 7: originally built and the radio station went in there there was an expectation that over time they'd have more of a commercial model and as Ash has talked about is that that community radio
00:12:00 model changed a lot over the years and they've probably moved away from the potential to be fully commercial even the commercial radio models changed over years I think you'll find all of them so probably do you want to see a question it's probably less relevant than it may have been many years ago yes but it still gives a bit of a sense of you know what that what that space could be Councillor Jurisevic: useful potentially so on the basis of those sort of questions Ash I mean in the finance area we seem to be giving with one hand and taking with the other are we better off looking at a peppercorn rent as we do with other community groups on spaces even though this is in a prime location and maintenance and all that is conducted by the day let's go to any roof leaks and things like that is that a more prudent methodology for applying a lease to what is essentially a not-for- profit community organisation that goes through and teaches people the fundamentals of radio and operations and people have gone on from this on to you know to become commercial radio operators
00:13:00 Speaker 8: so just to clarify your question Joe were you saying reduce the rent there further but then also reduce the community alliance grant so that you're not charging rental here and providing a Councillor Jurisevic: cash grant payment there yes so I'm wondering whether that's you know that's a prudent model to have is there is a different structure more relevant here as we do with other community groups Speaker 8: well I guess ultimately the question for council is do you want to change the financial outcome that we have in terms of supporting nursery and so if you know at the moment if they're paying us roughly six thousand dollars but we're giving them eight thousand dollars and that's obviously a difference of about two thousand dollars a year if you want to maintain that then I guess you can juggle those two things either way that arrive at the same net outcome and I'm not sure it really makes much of a difference either way but if you want to look at sustaining the community alliance grant and look at a different rental rate then that's a matter for council to consider
00:14:00 Councillor Jurisevic: that just means one of the things I think about is where else that community alliance grant could go if you know where that eight thousand dollars could be still a net cost of council I know it's a net Speaker 7: cost but it's not whether it's going through the alliance grant or not it's still a net cost but if we want in a different way as opposed to the alliance grant yeah but it's still yeah that's right just a different part of the budget different accounting a different processing but is that something we we consider my suggestion would council would be that we retain the six thousand dollars annual rent on the basis that if you reduce it to a dollar or nominal amount other community groups will say well we want that as well in what is you know really high quality fit out areas so you're better off having some sort of rental in there I think to create that sense that it reflects the quality of the building and the quality of the space Councillor Jurisevic: rather than a dollar so I'm just comparing it to whatever I said whatever the amount is that other community groups pay for space I said I'm more in favor of seeing a notional payment
15 minutes in ¶
00:15:00 there I see the value of six thousand dollars being far more modest and more attainable for an entity that's obviously struggled financially over the years and been challenged by that now the reason I go back to the question I raised is what was their rent when they were across the road I thought it wasn't a peppercorn that would have been 2005 I'm not sure it was Speaker 8: well before my time that one's in my head I've got a recollection that it wasn't a peppercorn Speaker 7: there's an old Queenslander roughly where the entrance to the RSL is at the back there and it was pretty grotty I think yeah and I can't recall what their rent was but they were left Councillor Wilkie: there in 2006-7 the comment I make is the staff you put in a lot of time working with all these individual community groups and they all have a unique history in a sense and the figures that are arrived at depend on their commerciality as well as the history of where they come from and
00:16:00 where they are now that's right so I respect the work you've done with the group and appreciate that the six thousand is something that the groups agreed to and you have as well and I think that's a fair thing and I want I'll be happy to support this actually they're happy with the six thousand Speaker 8: or something well I think like any group you know but the lower the better but do they do they have the capacity to manage they have the capacity to accommodate and they have done so in the last Councillor Jurisevic: several years they have an income stream that could generate sufficient as they have done in Mayor Stewart: the past yeah yeah just a good question you said that there's been a huge improvement in sort of I guess their operations and their management things like that because the line here is page five despite non-compliance returns from this FM over the past several years so they're looking a lot better in that regard now with more better management in place and better systems and structures yeah sorry uh page five ash under office's recommendation line three yeah
00:17:00 Speaker 8: oh okay sorry the non-compliance was the with regard to the terms of the lease itself um because yeah they weren't paying at the level that it said they should be at that point um then technically they were non-compliant with the lease um but in terms of the broader issue of the stability of the committee and how they're functioning there has been a significant improvement it was very dysfunctional for a long time um you know presidents and treasurers were changing every six months if not more frequently everyone would come in with a different vision and a different approach there was a lot of division between different cohorts of members in there and they were losing a significant amount of money kind of fifteen twenty thousand dollars a year of operational costs um they were fortunate they had a large sum of money that had been left to them at some point but they're basically eating away at that um and i think it was originally about for kind of capital investment rather than subsidizing operational costs but over the last couple of years they've turned that round they've made some savings decided there were some expenses that
00:18:00 they could do without and they've been more proactive in pursuing other funding streams through other grants that are available from different organizations for community radio stations and have worked hard to create some new revenue streams as well so it's far more Councillor Lorentson: sustainable now um i attended the open studio day for the new story of them and they did they had some grant money from the community benefit funding program from Queensland um the Queensland government um and we we were in search studio with its new office is brilliant and um i think you only have to go into understand that um these guys are operating in the community radio station at a really great level and recognizing their sponsors um i think it was none of the rest that um i met when i was at the open studios um but i i keep going back to every town has to have a library every town has to have
00:19:00 their museums and every town has to have their community radio stations it's part of what builds our community so the six thousand dollars i think is reflective of our acknowledgement of that um ash yeah Councillor Jurisevic: thank you and again so grants like that would go towards capital projects they wouldn't be able to use for operational funds one more dimension so grant external grants and the like yeah some of them come with different conditions they're attached i agree hardly i think you know it's one of those things again it is a breeding ground for potential uh you know people want to get involved in a career in radio and the like so it is an opportunity within our community to uh to train and people have gone on from this Councillor Lorentson: one is on our local abc fm so yeah and a lot of elderly people listen to the radio station and you know every second person i speak to have a really strong connection to the music or the radio
00:20:00 Speaker 7: announcers at the community radio station so the ratings will be particularly high at 10 30 tomorrow morning yeah i'm on tomorrow Councillor Jurisevic: it should be every wednesday the only other thing ash from uh the radio station have they looked at uh the digital format and having a um an online um facilitation for our services it's probably stepping out of my level Speaker 8: of expertise okay i just didn't know whether you knew or not i think that yeah certainly looking at how to lay a bulb and and keep up with the times and pursue new opportunities but i'm not sure exactly where they're at with that online all right we're happy with the start Councillor Jurisevic: and if you're going to move and having a move with councillor wilkie secondly councillor stewart council is in favor unanimously thank you thank you man item two pavement marking services tender award welcome brian and larry and uh i believe you've
00:21:00 got uh some information about a uh correction to the report uh that's correct council i just want Speaker 7: to give you an outline of what we'll do with the payment marketing one first and i'm sure thinking about what we call for in terms of term and what we're replacing yep definitely um so uh this Speaker 6: report obviously provides um the summary of our tender evaluation and a recommendation from um from that evaluation um council outsources our pavement marking services i did get it right did i traffic control payment i didn't mind did you um the current contract expires on the 30th of october uh in accordance with council's procurement policies and procedures uh we went out for a request for tender uh and attracted four responses uh we were all were considered compliant for further assessment which we assessed um and following a detailed assessment by um by a panel
00:22:00 uh we proposed and awarded um a two uh a two-year period contract with a potential three 12-month extensions uh subject to performance and review Speaker 7: we just clarify that so um in the version that's on the agenda it talks about two years um with an option um with one option of 12 months but can you just clarify what we went out for tender that we actually called for two years with three 12 months yeah we had uh we did Speaker 6: call for um a two-year tender with three one-year options on uh three by one-year extensions so each extension Councillor Jurisevic: would be reviewed and extended essentially the same overall period of five years but just a different Speaker 6: break up in the way that it gives us the flexibility of being able to um either call earlier or go
00:23:00 Speaker 7: through that full five years if need be too and so the wording that's been proposed today is to bring it into line with what we called for in the tender documents which is three years um or two years Councillor Jurisevic: three one year options um my understanding is these guys have been doing our road uh our line Speaker 6: marking road market for some time yep correct yes um and then obviously we're yeah we're recommending that um uh the cook family trust trading as suncoast road marking would be um the most suited um tender for us Councillor Jurisevic: best value for money you know price is certainly um significantly better than most of the others and their outcome is the overall outcome was pretty close in the end it was yes Councillor Wilkie: i just have a question about why you go for a two-year term not a three-year term Speaker 6: we're actually looking at because at the moment at this point in time we've been caught up with a lot of uh tender evaluations and it's a big strain on resourcing um the procurement
00:24:00 process quite extensive and we want the flexibility to be able to program this into the future so um yeah we just went for two years just in case there's change in technologies or in the way that we're going with works as well um we don't know what what will happen this might work for us or against us in the market so that's why we've gone with that but the beauty of it is we have those we essentially um can take on five years if we need to with those extension options there is a Councillor Jurisevic: the potential of using some recycled material in some of the uh the road markers is there nothing Speaker 6: uh glass bars and things like that uh i don't know whether i'd have to take that on that one Councillor Jurisevic: so i'm getting logged from the right hand side yeah yeah in some of it not so much this is it's more that where you see the green and elements other elements have been worn gonna use a recycled material is that that's something that we had in the q»ur in the tender to to look
00:25:00 Speaker 6: Yeah, I just don't know whether it's recycled glass or just powdered glass, so I'd need to, but the green treatment, in my understanding, there is some... Councillor Jurisevic: So we do use an element of recycled material, apparently, and continue to do so. Well, we'll be pushing that anyway. It's available, absolutely. Yep, that's where I thought, when you're talking about technology, that's one of the elements of where the technology was leading on those lines. Anything further, councillors? No, councillor Stewart, I'll second it. All in favour? Thank you, gentlemen. We'll move on to the next item, which is yours as well, the contract for traffic control services. And again, I'll get an overview and a correction of the terms of the agreement as opposed to what's in the report. Speaker 6: Yeah, I'll probably hit the terms straight up. They do just have been corrected to read exactly how it was sent out as intended documents for a two-year period with three 12-month terms based on performance.
00:26:00 And, you know, again, traffic control services are a major contract service that we utilise across all areas of infrastructure services, both in operational maintenance and our capital delivery. This report is obviously based on the evaluation from that tender that we sent out. The current existing contract expires. So, we've, very eager for this one to be in place, we've done a minor extension, just to get us over this period, in accordance with council's policy, our, gone out to tender and attracted 11 responses, which, and 10 of those were considered compliant for further assessment, and after that assessment, we propose to award the contract for a two-year period, with the potential for the three years subject to a two-year period.
00:27:00 So, three terms, three terms of up to 12 months, each subject to performance review. Tender evaluation panel completed the evaluation process and considered the traffic management people, to be the most advantageous to council, presenting the best value for money. Councillor Wilkie: In any of those three one-year extensions, would they be locked in at $750 a year, or would you have the flexibility to negotiate a new price? Speaker 6: There may be some flexibility. Maybe there's some changes in CPI. I'd need to go right into the specifics of what's in there, in the costings on that, but there is variations on an annual based on rise and fall, for that. Councillor Jurisevic: These would cover all reseals, so all reseals would have to be remarked, plus remarking of worn and, oh, sorry. Oh, this is traffic control, this is traffic control, sorry, traffic control, sorry, I put that here. Speaker 6: It can be impacted by anything from changes in, you know, employee awards and the like, and what their base salaries are and the like, too.
00:28:00 Councillor Jurisevic: And I notice here, yeah, obviously a highly competitive area, tender prices are within a much tighter range, and the overall outcomes are a lot closer with regard to, you know, 10 tenderers in the ballpark, so that's obviously a highly competitive area of delivery. Councillor Lorentson: Yes, it is, yeah. Brian, the expenditure of the traffic control services in 2020 was $739,000 against 2021, which is $750,000. There seems to be really little variation. Can you explain why? Speaker 6: Um, I guess we've got... Councillor Lorentson: And the tender before that, I think, was about 20% difference, so this one almost stayed the same for some reason. Speaker 6: Yeah, we've had variations in, you know, whether it's different type of work that requires traffic control in our capital program and our maintenance works as well, so it will have, I guess, a bit of swings and roundabouts around it, but it does even out over a period of time with that.
00:29:00 We had some fairly major traffic control requirements around the slip that we had down at Tingura Crescent, which was unplanned work as well. That has formed part of that, so they do vary, but, yeah, the only direction it seems to be going is up in most cases with the volume of work, and it'll be interesting to see with the current capital program, plus with our expanded resurfacing program and maintenance activities that, yeah, that this will further increase, too. Councillor Jurisevic: With also appropriate safety standards and that required by... Speaker 6: Exactly. It's probably good to point out that we had changes in the standard that came into force at the start of this year, but we'd been working with them for a 12-month lead time into that around the standards, which pretty much required an additional resource on traffic control per person, another person on when there's stop goes.
30 minutes in ¶
00:30:00 So that has increased our requirements, and, yeah, it's all around safety, and the key for us is to ensure that we're complying with that. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, I was trying to get traffic to slow down around roadworks is a challenge, and we've had treacheries in the past as a result of that. Not locally, but on our local road network, so. No, that's right. Anything further, councillors? No. Thank you. We have a mover. Councillor Stewart seconded Council of Lauraston. All in favour? Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, again. And thank you for bringing that correction to the table. Speaker 6: Apologies for that. Councillor Jurisevic: That's all right. Item four, Council Meeting Schedule 2022. Councillor Lorentson: I'd like you to come over to conference. Speaker 7: All right. I don't see the conflict on the Council Meetings.
00:31:00 The Council Meeting Schedule? Councillor Jurisevic: Council Meeting Schedule? Mayor Stewart: I think page 18 says ordinary meeting minutes 15th of October 2021. Item 9, should that read 20 20? Page 18 of 44. Ordinary meeting minutes 15th of October. That's a previous council decision. Speaker 7: 2020. 2020 should be. Yeah. Yes. Yep. Yep. Well done. Yep. Good pick up. Good pick up. That's only my job. That's me. That's on me that one. Maybe just a quick one councillors. That's it. The end of the month you're out. You're out. You're out. Thank you. Three weeks. This is technically my last report to council. Look, we've got the timetable set for next year. The two months are always a bit tricky.
00:32:00 January we're running out. We've got a couple of appointments we did this year where we have a simple ordinary meeting. Sorry, a general committee follow-up ordinary meeting. That agenda is always pretty small because staff have been away over that Christmas New Year period. At Easter it's always a bit tricky as well. You've got so many public holidays in there so it's going to be a bit difficult to have that general committee at Easter but we'll just get through that one. The other thing I've mentioned in the report is I think it'd be worthwhile for the council to revisit the membership of its committee probably in April. Yeah. I think it was two years after you set that up. And probably a couple of things to mention. We're trying to enhance the way we deal with some of the reporting. We're phasing in, making sure, there's executive summaries. So we didn't get them all because some of the reports have already been done before we did that,
00:33:00 and staff having a verbal introduction, I think it also makes us feel a little bit good. Excellent. The other one we're trying to do is to have reduced the number of reports going direct to the general committee. I will fail miserably on that for Monday, but that's an aspirational goal. And the only other one I'll probably just flag for consideration as we get into next year and we get out the other end of COVID, whenever that will be, I think it would be really good if the council revisited having community-based meetings. We did those in the previous term, they were good, and we went to a lot of different places, but it's been difficult in the COVID environment to do that in a safe way. I think that would be a good thing to have a look at in the year about taking one meeting in the first six months, one meeting in the second six months in the different parts of the community that we get real opportunities to meet great people. Councillor Jurisevic: That's also good for people to see the process and actually come to a meeting and bring their concerns directly out. Speaker 7: You'd normally go an hour beforehand and have a cup of tea and talk to people and stick around afterwards, give one over chat. Councillor Jurisevic: That's a great idea. Speaker 7: Otherwise, the report's pretty straightforward.
00:34:00 No other questions? Councillor Jurisevic: No. Move Councillor Loriston. Seconded Councillor. Seconded Councillor Wilkie. If there's nothing further, all in favour? Carried unanimously. Thank you. Move on to item five, Noosa Shire Council, Sol and Specialist Supplier List Leads. And this one, Councillor, I believe you may have a conflict to it. Councillor Lorentson: I, Councillor Lorentson, am an informant maybe, but I have a declarable conflict of interest in this matter as my husband is a general manager. Her page furnishes were quite limited, listed as number 20. I have no committee on the specialist surprise list, although I have a declarable conflict of interest. I do not, and I do not believe a reasonable reason to have a perception of bias. I will still leave the room for the meeting for debate and discussion on the statement. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you, Councillor.
00:35:00 Hello, friend. Hello, Lee. Councillor Wilkie: How are you? Councillor Jurisevic: You're going well? So, maybe a bit of an overview on why we have a sole and specialised supplier list and a bit of an understanding for all. Speaker 3: Absolutely. So, obviously, we have a requirement to procure goods and services compliantly against the Local Government Act and regulation. And that provides for medium and large size procurements. Part of that also allows for exceptions to these requirements. And one of those exceptions is where there is a notable satisfaction that either only one supplier is reasonably available to Council or that there is specialised and confidential nature types of services that doesn't warrant us to go to competitive quality.
00:36:00 Councillor Jurisevic: There are areas here where contracts may have been awarded and these people are the supplier as a result of a contract over a period of time. Do they fit into that scenario or are they a separate area of procurement? Speaker 3: In terms of the competitive process, do you mean? Councillor Jurisevic: In essence, yes. I'm looking at something like the library membership subscription services. That's not something that we go out necessarily. Are there a number of services? Are there a number of suppliers that could provide that sort of service or are there realistically only one supplier that has that capability and understanding? Speaker 3: There are different types of suppliers. However, it depends on the particular software that's been purchased. So, in a lot of these situations, depending in some situations on the sole specialised list, it may be that that is their particular software and they have specific ownership of that software. Otherwise, from a specialised perspective, maybe there's something very specific about the software that other providers can't actually provide it.
00:37:00 Councillor Jurisevic: So, in the initial stage, it may have gone out to a competitive tender, but once that software was purchased, then we're... Speaker 3: It may have, but I can't guarantee that that's what's happening. That's an example, though. Absolutely. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. I've got a question in the background there. Speaker 1: There's a new newspaper, as you know, your local. Yes. Let me get to that. Would that be precluded because it's not on the list? It is on the list on page 29. Speaker 3: It has been added. So, page... 29. Sorry, item number... Councillor Jurisevic: Whoops. 25, executive services community engagement. Your local lifestyle newspaper? Yes. Is that the one you're talking about?
00:38:00 Speaker 3: Okay. No worries. Councillor Jurisevic: And I'm assuming the ones mentioned in blue are changes or additions to the last... Additions. Speaker 3: Correct. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Nothing further, councillors? Can I have a mover? Councillor Wilkie. I'll second it. I'll second it. Councillor Wilkie: Is it? Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Councillor Stewart. Oh, she's already got it. Yeah. All in favour? Thank you, Lee. Thank you. Speaker 7: Councillor Wilson. Thanks, Lee. Speaker 3: Good to see you all. You too. Good to see you. Thanks, guys. Done. Cheers. Councillor Jurisevic: Item six, waste management. The six-monthly report from January to June 2021. Welcome to the table, our new head of waste and environment, health... Up here, Graham. ...Kyro Dodd. Thank you. We'll fire up the barbecue and put you on the grill, mate. You ready? Yep. Can't wait. Speaker 8: I brought reinforcements. I'm just here. It's Kerry's proxy. Unfortunately, she couldn't make the meeting this afternoon. Councillor Jurisevic: Now, there was a request for this to go to general committee when Councillor Lorentson wasn't available for the week. There you are.
00:39:00 You're happy to discuss at this point? Yeah. Speaker 8: Okay. So we may not be going to general committee at this time. All right. Any questions? Questions? Councillor Jurisevic: I might get a bit of an intro somewhere. Yep. Speaker 2: No worries. Okay. So I've sort of started with finance as the report flows. And for the full financial year, waste management delivered an operating surplus of 3.6 million, which was 167K below budget. This was comprised of an increase to revenue of 531K. And 310K reduction in spend attributable to direct costs. There was an increase of indirect costs of circa 1 million, which is mainly attributable to the landfill rehabilitation provision. Speaker 7: We might come back and get Trent to explain that. Speaker 2: Yes. Yes. I thought that might be the case. On capital works, the previous year focused mainly on redesign of cell 1.1 and 1.2, which has resulted in an increase of two years of life and hence moving these two cells.
00:40:00 From eight years to 10 years, tacked into the design phase with new clean water drain, second sedimentation basin and final design capping for cell 1.1. This package of work is currently out for tender for a target completion of this financial year. We put a hold on the permanent weighbridge and gatehouse project and moved to a temporary arrangement to address current issues, but allowing flexibility to be included into potential resource recovery expansion project. From waste education perspective, last financial year was obviously impacted by COVID, but is returning with the activities as listed in the report. On the landfill itself, there's been a circa increase of 50% of landfill gas capture with the introduction of a ring main and 13 vertical gas wells. We also had four minor non-compliance events, all associated with storm water runoff, not leachate. And mainly involved in weather events, or all involved in weather events, sorry.
00:41:00 Regarding future planning, we've commenced the process of developing a long-term waste strategy, which will include items such as kerbside collection strategies, including bulky waste, technology and other key attributes. Councillor Jurisevic: Have we got a timeline with regard to when that waste strategy may be coming to an end? Speaker 2: We're aiming for a draft by the end of the year. Councillor Jurisevic: That's all. Any questions? Councillor Lorentson: Okay, might be on topic, but something I've been dying to talk to you about, Kyron, and dying to meet you. Self-contacting smart bins on beaches, is that something that you're looking at? Speaker 2: If we are, it will be included in the waste strategy. So the waste strategy will try and encompass all different technologies, various technologies, and try and encompass it in one strategy going forward.
00:42:00 Councillor Lorentson: So where are we up to with the master plan, the report? Sorry, can I just tap in there? Councillor Jurisevic: One thing you may not be aware of is we actually have trialled the big belly bins, which were one of the early ones. The solar panels? Yes, yes, and in fact, one's across the road. Councillor Lorentson: And how is that going? Councillor Jurisevic: Not as well as we would have liked and hoped and expected at the time, but there was fairly new technology, and I believe there have been improvements, from what I've seen, there have been some improvements, in fact. Councillor Lorentson: They're charging them on through Bondi Beach and Shelling Beach Downs. I think overseas as well. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. One of the challenges with the early technology was that it was into a small receptacle. The newer bins actually utilise the technology of a standard 240 litre bin within them, so it might be something we can have another look at. Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think, as I said, once it would be included in the waste strategy going forward,
00:43:00 Speaker 7: in terms of the financials, it's just the implications of our landfill mediation. I might just get Trent to pop up and talk that through and explain how that works in plain English, converting Australian standard accounting standards into plain English. Councillor Jurisevic: That's the bit when I saw a million dollars in finance costs raised, I went, what are you guys doing? So please explain. Speaker 4: This one's come up the last couple of years, councillors, and it's probably even broader across the entirety of the council. It's probably the biggest component of our finance costs. So what we recognise or we account for in the financials for council is that at some point in time in the future, we will be liable for rehabilitation of the landfill site. Now, obviously, depending on the timing of the existing cells and the future cells, some of that work will occur over the next two to three years as we cap the existing cell and then start the next one. Some of that work may not occur until 2070 once the entire site is being completely consumed with its airspace.
00:44:00 And then we embark on a longer term monitoring process and rehabilitation of the site beyond that. So because we've got that planning in place, we know based on current estimates what our timing is for the future landfill cell construction and its potential closure, we can measure and estimate the cost of the construction. So we recognise that as a liability in the books. So it's a future cost, future contingent liability, if you like, for future generations of rate payers. What we do each year is we just re-measure that cost. So we look at the timing of the works. We look at what inflation and interest rates are doing in terms of cost escalation. And we recalculate that. The problem is when the costs are going all the way up to 2070, if inflation is going down, or debt rates move just from the smallest margin, it can be up to a million dollars
45 minutes in ¶
00:45:00 difference either way. And so that's what we're getting here. It's not real money. We're not spending a million dollars. We're not paying, physically paying in the money. It's about the fact that we've moved the value of the provision. It's gone from 15 to 16 or 16 to 15 million dollars. But that million dollars difference just needs to hit the books somewhere. And it goes through finance costs. Speaker 7: It's effectively an accounting treatment for future obligation. Councillor Jurisevic: The reciprocal of that though, Trent, is if we improve our waste diversion methodologies, and we're not filling our landfill as fast, and that life expectancy increases, does Speaker 4: that have a bearing on that figure as well? Absolutely. So what we, so this, we're now currently through the rock waste strategy that's going on now. And the design work being undertaken. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of work to do with the landfill expansion. The estimate on how much airspace we have in the site, but also the rate at which we consume that airspace and how much rehabilitation we need changes as consumer trends and treatment
00:46:00 and management of waste resources change. So we might find that next year coming out of the waste strategy changes, that the numbers might change again. And we just need to continue to update those estimates as much as we can. Speaker 5: Every year at the end of the financial year, period 13, I think, it's a mysterious period 13, that recalculation occurs. Speaker 4: This is why we leave it to the end of the year, because then it does an impact on the controllable performance of the waste business that Kyron looks after as part of his role. Mayor Stewart: Kyron, is it Sunshine Coast Council or Wharton Bay that's spending like $80 million in this space? Speaker 2: In the technology space or? Mayor Stewart: Yeah, in the space. Speaker 2: It's only been here two months, I've probably done. Speaker 5: So particularly, both councils have been going through and looking at their waste strategies going forward.
00:47:00 And councils might recall that we were involved in a project with Sunshine Coast, Wharton and Unity Ward to look to see whether there was a way regionally we could look at future waste. Since that. Process has occurred, each, I guess, entity is then looking at what could they achieve on their own, and both councils are going through processes. I'm understanding there's still a lot is commercially confidential at the moment, but they are both looking at different processes which are technology based. Yes. Mayor Stewart: I'm just wondering, we don't have that, obviously, those resources that are disposable financially, but is there something that we can look at what they're doing that we could then. Speaker 5: So we are in conversations with Sunshine Coast Council about what waste looks like from, I guess, this small region and what opportunities there might be to, I guess, partner in that waste space.
00:48:00 Councillor Jurisevic: I know from the Sunshine Coast Council's perspective, one of the projects that they're currently undertaking is a redevelopment of the MRF, because the MRF is coming to the end of its life and looking at a new and important project. Yes. I believe we're in discussions with this too. Speaker 5: Yes, so obviously that's in early days, and there's confidential discussions underway. That's exciting. Yeah. And look, given the challenges that all local governments are facing in the waste space, it's going, it would be difficult for any council to achieve best practice on their own. Correct. So as a region, we're stronger. Yes, absolutely. And we, similarly, as we would be having, as we're having discussions with Sunshine Coast, we'd be having discussions with the Gingy League. Speaker 7: One of the interesting things for me is on this, that to a large extent, we don't have a burning platform with our waste management, because we've got such a good set up with our landfill, it's nothing that's driving us to make a sudden change in the next five years from a resource management point of view.
00:49:00 Our drive comes from good environmental practices and need for change and so on, but we don't have that stress that other organisations, other councils have where the landfill's going to run out in three years or whatever it might be. They don't know what they're going to do. Yeah. So they've been really driven by that, a lot of other councils. We've got, you know, 50 years, whatever it is, left. Yeah. And we don't have that stress. Exactly. So we've got to take our time out. Councillor Lorentson: That's right. Speaker 7: So the decision. So 2026, yes. So the decision is driven by the environmental implications, not by a commercial or a practical imperative. Speaker 5: And one of the reasons that we've brought Kyron on is because of his expertise gained overseas, which to be real is 10 years ahead of us. Because we need, a lot of these ideas sound fantastic when you just look at it and read
00:50:00 about it. I know that sounds like that's the magic solution. But he brings that experience of, well, actually there's unintended consequences sometimes. There's implications that you need to take into account and you need to start to make some decisions about where our priorities are. As Brett says, in terms of actually managing our landfill and our waste, we have time. It's the environmental aspects that put us under pressure. And also the timing of our, if we were to have partners. So it's fair to say that those partners or those neighbouring councils are under a lot more pressure than we are. And so they may need to move much faster. And so therefore we might move faster so that we could be part of a regional solution. Councillor Jurisevic: Some of those environmental pressures, we were at, Kyron Ian and I attended the Local Government Association of Queensland Waste Conference. A few weeks back.
00:51:00 And the current state strategy for food waste organics is at a draft level and being put forward for comment at this point in time. So there's triggers from the state that we'll have to adhere to in the future, as well as changes at a federal level with regard to consistency of bins, packaging, covenants, and things like that, that we'll have to adhere to in the future. And that will change over the next few years. So the face of waste going forward will have some, you know, have some changes from the national and state level as well that will impact upon our communities. So there are things there that we have to look at and review in our own waste strategy going forward. Absolutely. Councillor Wilkie: Yep. You mentioned that you've increased the methane capture of the landfill. Councillor Jurisevic: Yep. Councillor Wilkie: And it's flared to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But with the increase in capture, are we approaching, are we anywhere near the level of capture
00:52:00 that would make feasible power generation? Seven and a half years. Yeah. Speaker 2: I think, I mean, we've started the discussions with LMS. I think it's, the feasibility study is a separate discussion with LMS, and it's probably at its infancy at the moment. From my experience, we should be. But I think that is based on a UK model, not a national model. And there's some financial differences between the two that would probably differentiate why it's not the case at the moment. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: And that's it. That'd be wrapped up in the waste strategy. Speaker 2: It would be, yeah, because I think, you know, if you start looking at other types of treatment on the site, then you've got also that gas and other sources of gas, which then generate a higher volume and potentially the ability to do exactly that. Councillor Jurisevic: Yep. I'd be interested to go back to their contract and see what their contract said with regard to when or what the trigger was to generate, because I thought there was a generating element within the...
00:53:00 Speaker 5: So, one of the aspects that we have looked at is the contractual arrangements with LMS to identify whether there are performance measures in that. It was a contract that was established when we were amalgamated. There doesn't appear at this point in time to be enough in that contract. It was a contract that would provide an avenue for change. So, the important thing, I think, is for Cooroy to develop a good relationship with LMS and chart out a pathway and then some commitment to achieving that. Councillor Jurisevic: Certainly, the improving capture mechanisms and methodology and the rates of capture have got to be something we've got to be looking at there. But my thought was the contract was a 10-year contract. It was five? 10 or 20? Speaker 2: No, it's quite a lengthy... I think it's 25 years, isn't it? Speaker 5: That was one of the early things that we looked at. It's a very lengthy contract.
00:54:00 But one of the pieces of work that Cooroy is doing is looking at that contract, looking at how the function is operating and whether it's meeting the contract requirements. And then, most importantly, really developing that relationship with LMS to say, look, my experience in the UK is this. How can we get to this point that we all agree we want to achieve? Councillor Jurisevic: It would be good to see. It would be good to see, rather than flaring it off. And that would significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from the facility. Anybody got any further? I've got a few more. I've got one for that. Speaker 7: Fire away. I guess the challenge for Council is that we're looking at diversion rates. States have got a target of 65% by 2025, and we're chugging away about 0.5% a year or maybe 1% a year. We're not going to make it. And that's achieving... We're about 20% short now.
00:55:00 So we've got to find a way to work out how do we get that big leap, 5% or 10% in one year, as opposed to the marginal stuff we're doing now. I think that's one of the things our waste strategy is going to have to address, is how do we close that gap? Because at our current rate, we're not going to make it. Councillor Wilkie: Brett, are any other local governments doing much better than us? There'd be a similar challenge... I don't know. ...for most local governments. Do you think that's diversion rates? I don't know. Councillor Jurisevic: The short answer that I'm seeing is there are some that are on a par and maybe a little bit else. There are a couple... There are three trials on FOGO going on in the state at the moment. Lockyer... Speaker 2: Rocky. Councillor Jurisevic: Rocky. Douglas, wasn't it? Lockyer. The three trials there. Ipswich. Ipswich, Lockyer and Rocky are doing trials on FOGO at the moment, which is probably the next most significant opportunity for diversion rates. That was mentioned at the LGAQ conference. So everybody's carefully watching what those three trials are undertaking in Queensland. Of course, Noosaville, Victoria and South Australia have had FOGO implemented for some
00:56:00 time now. So we're learning the lessons from down there as well. Councillor Wilkie: Joe, you might remember better than me, but didn't we have a presentation about... If we had a green waste, we'd add a certain percentage of waste to it. We added food to that. It was only quite a relatively small increase in diversion rate, wasn't it? About 7% or something. It's not quite massive. Councillor Jurisevic: From a residential perspective versus a commercial perspective, there's two different elements to that. And it's a discussion Kyro and I have started now. He's got his feet under the table. Councillor Wilkie: We've got to do it eventually. In terms of getting massive diversion rates. Councillor Jurisevic: How we do it and what the methodology to capture those and what the costs are are all things for the waste strategy going forward. Councillor Wilkie: Is there much happening at a national level in terms of producing and packaging? Speaker 5: Not at the speed that we'd like to see. I mean, certainly, we've talked about that we have the ability to impact our operations and to some degree a little bit downstream.
00:57:00 But what is our ability to affect upstream? I came to work this week in Australia. I was in Australia for a week promoting the fact that my washing machine had, you know, the motherboard decided it was no longer going to function and the replacement cost of that motherboard is such that the advice is just throw away the washing machine. Now, until we're in an environment where we're valuing that item and the ability to repair and replace that item, we're having to face the challenge of this highly costed washing society that buys things and then just they're able to throw away. So, one of the challenges that I've given Kyrone is how, you know, given Noosa's strong track record in the waste space, how we're able to then play a part in those discussions to help start to influence at a state and national level.
00:58:00 Councillor Jurisevic: That's being spoken at at the national level. The fact that one of the things that brought up the waste confidence is the consumability of items. Yes. The fact that they're not as repellent as they should be. That's something that they're looking at from a national perspective with regard to legislation on how that's managed. Speaker 5: I think in going back to your question, Brett, around diversion rates, you know, Kyrone's already started to have a look at the data and say there's, you know, from his experience, there's something not quite right there. And so, we need to then really understand our data. He's pointed to the likely volume of waste that's coming across the border from the northern part of Sunshine Coast across the, through the gate to landfill. So, we need to really understand where the waste is coming from so that we can then apply the right strategy to divert it.
00:59:00 Because if we're putting all of our efforts, for example, into our residents, we're not actually, hang on, still not seeing much growth. Well, potentially we're applying our energy in the wrong place. And similarly, potentially it might be, for example, coming out of our tourism sector, who are here for, you know, a day, a weekend or a week, but not applying the same rigour that they might when they're in their home environment. Or they might not have the same ability to do recycling in their home environment. So, they don't think about it when they're in their home environment. They don't think about it when they come here. Councillor Jurisevic: We're capturing Peregian Springs coming here because of the proximity as opposed to . Speaker 5: So, before we determine what we're actually going to do, we need to understand where it's coming from. Speaker 2: And that's sort of where we're starting is we're getting the data at its rawest level and trying to compile it. And we review it weekly. And part of that is to understand it from the team and understand it ourselves and also
60 minutes in ¶
01:00:00 make sure it's scrubbed data. You know, it's correct. Yep. Councillor Jurisevic: From a national level, you mentioned packaging. 2025, the covenant is there that all packaging must be compostable, recyclable or reusable. That has to come in by, that will be in for all packaging, food packaging by 2025. All packaging by 2025. That's enforceable. That's a federal government imperative that's being done. There are new stewardship programs that are being trialled and being opened up and facilitated. And the idea of those is to try to divert certain items from the waste stream into recycle streams, and i.e., creating circular economies for those manufacturers to take the waste back and actually reuse the product. So, those are slowly, but surely, newer streams are opening up. But e-waste is now more consistent than it ever was. We've, I don't know, I don't know. I think we, about three years ago, it finally became permanently subsidised for the full
01:01:00 12 months as opposed to when it was sort of intermittent. And that might have been a bit more than three years ago, but around that. So, those sort of schemes are coming in. I'm trying to remember some of the- It's getting better. I don't know if you're recording the new ones that were being trialled and coming to the fore. So, there's things in those lines. Councillor Wilkie: I have another question about contamination rates. You made us aware that contamination of the yellow top bins, recycle bins with general waste, was causing large amounts of recyclables to have to go to landfill. There was an education program that was started to help reduce those rates of contamination. How does, how is that going? Has there been a noticeable difference? Might be a question for Ian. Speaker 2: That's the bin tank. Yes. So, we'll roll that out as a, another trial. And then we will look to bring that in the waste strategy as a potential ongoing strategy and as an ongoing educational behavioural change to the process. Speaker 5: So, first, the first trial was very successful. And so, the theory behind it is that, you know, we can do waste education broad scale.
01:02:00 And we can see that it has some impact, but doesn't have long term impact. Or you can do micro level behavioural change. And see where, then track whether that has long term impact. And so, this trial was around working with a small group of residents around what goes into their bins and trying to drive that down over a period. It was very successful. What the staff have now done is going, okay, let's go back and let's learn what worked well, what could be improved, and then conduct another trial. Obviously, there was some, you know, misunderstanding. But some of the community, particularly those that weren't involved, that this was about bin policing, et cetera. So, this second trial is about, okay, looking at that, how can we do that aspect better before we then look at rolling it out further.
01:03:00 Councillor Wilkie: And it would have to be ongoing to be effective, do you think? Speaker 5: It's interesting. Speaker 2: I think you want to, well, I think the starting point is back to the data. So, if we've got our data correct and we can view, you know, if we do something, we do a change, we can see an improvement or the other way. At least we can work out whether we're gaining traction, keeping traction, and we need to focus or refocus and change tact as we go through. Speaker 5: The evidence from where this has been run previously is that it does not, you know, if you work intensively for that initial period over several weeks. You then have some monitoring afterwards, but then you don't need to because people have actually adopted the change. It becomes habitual. Whereas our broad scale, it's almost like we have to constantly keep going at that message because it doesn't become habitualized.
01:04:00 So, this trial is about at what point does it become habitualized and then you don't actually need to go back and do it again. You might need to. You might take it to the next level. You might refine it, but you don't have to do that same level of intensive work or the same level of time. Speaker 2: That was the experience I had in the UK as well. In Leicester, we did a bin tagging program, very similar and, you know, completely different demographics to here. And I would say here is much more engaged than we had there and it wasn't a continual program. We actually stopped it and maintained. Councillor Wilkie: So, it worked? Speaker 2: It worked. Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Yes. Okay. That's the way South Australia and Victoria, New South Wales implemented their FOGO system after implementing it. A bin auditing system going through and working at a micro level to deal with contamination rates and the like. So, that was successful. The interesting thing to go back to the places that we did trial now and see that it has still adhered because obviously you get new people moving into an area, people moving in. There's an impact there.
01:05:00 Speaker 5: So, one of our challenges here is the, you know, the change rate in our community. Looking at it, how continual would the program have to be? Or would the fact that you've got a neighbourhood where predominantly the neighbourhood have habitualised an adopter, do they help manage other parts of the neighbourhood? So, yeah. It certainly has shown to be more effective. You wouldn't step away from your broad scale education, but you would have better lot if you invest also in this micro education. Councillor Wilkie: And a little known change is that you've made 140 litre general waste bins available to the general public. Yep. Has there been much of an uptake of that for people who want to reduce their waste stream? Speaker 2: Well, we've had a little bit of, I guess, a small step, but I don't think it's been overwhelming. Speaker 1: Yep. Speaker 2: But, you know, I think that will come out of a strategy.
01:06:00 And there might be some differentiation, a slightly different strategy we might take around 140s and collection strategies in general, you know, in terms of keeping 240s, but collecting them biweekly. And there's all the different options that you can entertain in that collection strategy. But I think we need to sort of stop, look at the data, consider the whole picture and then, you know, make decisions around strategy versus technology versus pretty much everything Councillor Wilkie: else. And I think they see the 140 litre bins as a visible sign to the rest of the community that, hey, we don't need to have a big waste bin and we are reducing. It's sort of like a signal. Championing and signalling where, and it's only a comment, but if you, if it's just a big bin still there. Yeah. Collected fortnightly, it doesn't have the same impact. Yeah. And there may be reluctance to having rubbish sitting on your, on your footpath for two weeks instead of one before collection.
01:07:00 Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: My understanding is the petition and that, do we know if there was a significant update from that, from those residents? Speaker 2: I think it was five properties and those five properties are getting their bins either this Friday or next week. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. So there's still plenty of scope there for those. Yeah. And the other ones are one of the champions of waste reduction. Councillor Wilkie: And anyone can apply via the council website. Yeah. We can do that right now. Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: Colin, you talk a lot about trials and data. That excites me. In regards to data, and interesting what you were saying before, impact of COVID, the implications of COVID, the drive market and whether the behaviour that needs to be changed is actually with our tourists, not necessarily of our residents. Yeah. How do you give any consideration to the idea of no bins? Take your rubbish home. So places like tourist precincts like Hastings Street, et cetera, or even schools, remove bins altogether and throw the onus back on the culprit to bring their litter home.
01:08:00 Or in the case, in a school situation, kids bring home smelly, dirty lunch boxes for the plastic. So I keep thinking back on our traffic strategy. We don't want to encourage cars. So the one way of not encouraging cars and for people to walk instead of drive is we reduce the amount of car spaces. So the concept of three-storey car parks goes against our strategy. Yeah. Is the same sort of thing applicable in waste? Speaker 2: Has it been applied anywhere else? I guess would be my first question. And then what was the... Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: I think some schools have actually started rolling it out with no bins or one wheelies. Yeah. So I sat at the summit conference on the weekend. So I know the concept has been trialled overseas. Yeah. But maybe something that we possibly could give consideration. I know that our bins at Sunshine Beach, all the way through Main Beach, are notoriously
01:09:00 overflowing. And that's not because council don't have great maintenance. It's just that we don't have good maintenance. We're paying for extra services down there. Yeah. It's the fact that we've got a lot of visitors at certain times of the year. So... Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's worth looking at most strategies in mind. You're taking all the different types of ideas and looking at it as a strategy and working out which is the best option for the case that's presented, I think. Yeah. From my experience, there'll be loads of different methodologies and technologies that will come our way over the next two or three years. And we're gonna be very careful to pick ones that work and don't get too tied up with some technologies in particular that will lead us down a path which will actually cost us in the future. So we've just gotta be careful. We look at the data, make sure it's proven technology, proven processes, and do our own homework. But from my point of view, I'm willing to look at any technology or process or change
01:10:00 and try and get the information and review it as part of a bigger strategy. I think that's... That would be sensible. Councillor Jurisevic: As far as the schools go, Emma runs a great program. You can probably allude to this a bit more than I can. A great program with all the schools. When Tewantin did their... The education program years ago, they were the first to come on board. They reduced their waste to curb by 80%. What? Yeah. Nude lunches of the like as a common scene within so that they don't go... Yeah. I wonder where you're going with that. Not wear any clothes while you eat lunch. Nude lunches where they're not wrapped in plastic and taken so that the containers go home and the plastic wrap doesn't go anywhere. It's all part and parcel of that education program, plastic free ethos. Speaker 5: And I think that's a perfect example of where you want intensive behavior change. So you want the staff to be working with one school to help that school overcome firstly all the objections that you're going to get about why this can't work, to really work with them and chip away and so that behaviour can be lasting rather than just going out with a, for example, you know, don't send with a school kind of message.
01:11:00 You're going to get very little take up but you work individually with a school and you get a huge outcome and all of us and our parents know how well our children like to keep us on track with things like that and our, you know, kids are really fantastic educators of, you know, parents, grandparents, they absolutely are. So schools are highly effective. Councillor Jurisevic: With the turnover year in, year out of different kids, we continue to go back and continue to deliver that program. Councillor Wilkie: Just following up on that take your rubbish with you ethos, aren't the streets of Japan devoid of rubbish bins?
01:12:00 And rubbish. And rubbish. Councillor Lorentson: And pockets of Americans saying along the beaches there's no rubbish, they actually say take your rubbish home. Councillor Jurisevic: Funnily enough, Hastings Street actually approached Council about a different way of approaching the waste management in Hastings Street. It was around more of taking your rubbish to the receptacle and including organic waste in that going forward. Councillor Lorentson: They will also remove their bins 50 metres. Councillor Jurisevic: That's what I'm saying, yeah. And it's about... If you take it to the bins, the bin doesn't come to you. Mayor Stewart: Yeah, that's correct. Councillor Jurisevic: Two last questions from me. Eight to ten year self-life that you mentioned there. Can you just explain a bit more about that change in that? Speaker 2: Oh, look, he's picked prior my time, so I wouldn't like to get into the detail without someone like Ian stepping in. But there was some redesign and some rework with the contractor to expand the eight year initial plan and whatever work they did.
01:13:00 Councillor Jurisevic: They were getting a better outcome. Getting a better outcome of the work. Better management. Exactly. Better management practices and... Councillor Wilkie: Do you want me to chip in? Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, go for it. Yes, please. Councillor Wilkie: Just what we did through the master plan and we were able to expand the footprint slightly. By doing that, it gives us an extra two years. So by a small change, it gives us another two years of work. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. And last question. Construction and demolition waste and green waste are a couple of things that we do and we do it quite well. The markets for those, have we got a reasonable sort of avenues for disposal of those products? Because I know the green waste at times accumulates. And the second part of that question is, as far as circular economy, are we utilising those and have we had conversations with Ian Council on our opportunities to utilise the products and any other products that we're generating out of resource recovery at the facility? Speaker 2: Yeah, so for the first part, yes, we are. There is markets.
01:14:00 I wouldn't say they're extensive. We're trying to work on developing those now. One, from a health and safety point of view, I want to reduce the volume that's at the landfill. From a health and safety risk, fire risk coming into fire season, I think that's sensible. Councillor Jurisevic: Is there possibly a greater awareness with civil contractors for C and D waste, for example? Speaker 2: The C and D element, I think, yes. I've had a chat to Craig in infrastructure and there's obviously some constraints about what they can use from their specifications. But the discussion started. I think that's an important part to get to that point. And then we can see whether there is some appetite and also spec allowance, I think, is the key bit. What's in the specification and what can be used. And if that can be changed, then we've got the market. Councillor Jurisevic: And green waste stockpiles. We haven't got any stockpiles at the moment, are you? Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah, we have. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: So plenty of opportunity for the community to turn around and go and pick up some good quality mulch for their gardens for the summer season.
75 minutes in ¶
01:15:00 Speaker 2: Yeah. We've been advertising that on Facebook to try and to get that community more engaged in coming to collect that. We did see a little uptick, but we're just trying to extend that communication so people know that it's there and aware that it's there. Councillor Jurisevic: Double Blind's a great product for water retention. Yeah. All right. That's it from me. Anybody else? I'll move it. Good thought. Councillor Lorentson second it. All in favour? Thank you. Thank you. Good thought. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Mayor Stewart: Cheers. Cheers. Councillor Jurisevic: Cheers. Mayor Stewart: Cheers. Councillor Jurisevic: Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Speaker 5: Cheers. Cheers.