Challenge 3: Cherwell District Council

Will Brooks:

So today we’re in the South East region in the beautiful area of Cherwell District Council. When you ask residents about what services do their council provide, waste is the first one. They collect my bins. So, this is gonna be an absolutely corking challenge for them.



Joe Kinsella:

We have been asked to design a future operating model and identify the transformation which is required in order to implement that operating model.



Cllr Barry Wood:

We chose this subject for the challenge today because it's so important to ordinary folk. To residents who live here this is their primary interface with the District Council



Felicity Lynch:

Cherwell council are very proactive in terms of their waste management, their recycling, they've got a really high recycling rate. They've got a really fast-growing community, there's lots of houses being built.



Hannah Futter:

There is so much more to waste than I ever imagined. There are so many different ways that you can provide the service and it's nice to be in a council that prides itself so much on their waste services.



Joe Kinsella:

So far, we have had a little bit of team time but we've also embarked on an exercise which was essentially speed dating but for local government.



Jack Kennedy:

And it gave us really good insight in just 4 minutes with each person to get their perspective, understand their role, and what they thought about this challenge, and feed that into our thinking. It was pretty intense, but it was a really good opportunity to see lots of people in short amount of time.



Rose Hampton:

We went to Banbury Transfer Station which is where the local authority takes all of the waste that they've collected from the kerbside. The waste comes in and is dropped off into sort of a pile and is separated out into residual waste, recycling. And then there's a huge JCB crane that picks it all up and puts it into another van to be taken away to be turned into energy or to be recycled.



Lewis Sheldrake:

We visited the new Bicester depot. It’s former MOD land and so there's not a great deal around it. There’s huge potential for that site. It’s absolutely vast, particularly in contrast to the existing provision that Cherwell District Council use in Bicester. Massive opportunity for how waste management can be completely revolutionised.



Joe Kinsella:

We have had a working dinner with councillors and with officers. The things that we discussed were around sense-checking some of our quite innovative ideas to see if they’re feasible for the council.



Zoe Galvin:

Yesterday I took quite a leading role on thinking about the net zero impact, and the carbon implications of what we're doing. Today I've taken more of a role of looking at the model and looking at the existing process, and then helping us get our report paper and presentation to sell the benefits of our ideas.

 

Francis Saukila:

I’m here as a replacement for Hani, who unfortunately is not around. I think we’ve put in quite a lot of effort, there seems to be quite a lot of passion. There is a friendly level of competitiveness. Quite confident that whatever model that we present this afternoon, it will be something that the council could potentially seriously consider going forward.

Felicity Lynch:

It's a bit different from other challenges because two of our team have gone off to do a site visit this morning, which has separated the team a little bit. There's information coming out of that site visit that we're getting back through like WhatsApps and text messages that were having to now feed very quickly back into the plan.

 

Sydney Alexander:

I think we've got lots of ideas. So right now, it’s just to just focus on what are the right ideas for the panel that we’ll be presenting to today. I'm feeling a bit nervous about the presentation for today's challenge. The room is a really different space than what we had before, so we're thinking about how we make it exciting, interactive and what we're really going to do for 10 minutes.

Leanda Cable:

We may have kidnapped and be holding hostage one of the mascots that is synonymous with waste and recycling in the district. His name is Binbo. We realised that one of the officers regularly visits schools to educate young people about waste and recycling and we thought actually that would really bring the presentation to life.

Michael Barrett:

Team Catalyst are responding really well to this challenge. They clearly think there's gonna be lots if they can learn here, and take back to their home council, which is a brilliant part of the local government challenge.



Poonam Mistry:

They seem really energised by the task and really focused on kind of achieving whatever they can for the council which is really exciting.

Joe Kinsella:

So in terms of our proposal and a future model, we firmly see technology as being at the forefront of that. Not just technology but bringing customers into how the council uses technology and data. We also see the new development for the depot site as being the first ever carbon negative depot site in the country.



Felicity Lynch:

Our idea in a nutshell: so, we're trying to be as resident-focused as possible. We are ensuring that we utilise more data and insight and we're going to do that through the use of QR codes on the recycling bins so that a resident can scan the QR code and be able to know what’s supposed to go in which bin. That they'll be able to say actually I don't need my bin collected this time. In addition to that, we're going to start bringing in the deposit return scheme which is something that's going to come into legislation quite soon.



Felicity Lynch:

Such a big panel. Like I have a feeling they’re going to be debating for a while.

Lewis Sheldrake:

Yeah, and there’s quite a mix isn’t there. You’ve got some really senior management from the officer side, and also members, and how that will play out will be interesting. Who holds the whip hand?

Leanda Cable:

Who will win?

Felicity Lynch:

Fingers crossed!

Hannah Futter:

Yay!

Helen Jenkins:

The judges did have quite a bit of deliberation to do, and it was tough because both teams were fantastic. So, after an excellent presentation Team Thrive are the winners today.



Cllr Ian Corkin:

They were such an inspiring group of individuals, and for an elected member, knowing that the next generation are of that calibre, and that engaged, that enthusiastic, that creative, is immensely valuable.



Yvonne Rees:

What's not to love about having the privilege of local government’s next 10 rising stars in your authority, asking challenging questions and actually helping you define the future.



Joe Kinsella:

I'm feeling naturally disappointed to lose. I’m also very happy for Felicity. I know that she's deserved a win on the challenge. Thanks to Cherwell for putting on this wonderful challenge, it's been unique and fascinating in equal parts.



Felicity Lynch:

I think we've all worked together really well and I'm really proud of the team. I’m absolutely elated. Because I've been doing this since 2019, this is technically my fifth challenge and I've lost four of them. To win and to win when I'm being team leader, I’m really really pleased, really happy.

Cherwell District Council is set in the beautiful landscape of Oxfordshire serving a population of 150,503 across 227 square miles, with much of the landscape being soft, rolling hills and the northwest of the district lying at the northern extremity of the Cotswolds.

Cherwell District Council works in partnership with the other four district councils in Oxfordshire and the County Council through the Oxfordshire Resources and Waste Partnership (ORWP) to collectively deliver the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS) for Oxfordshire. The current JMWMS sets out how the Councils will work together to deliver sustainable waste management services until 2023. 

There are radical and significant changes on the horizon for waste services across the country due to factors both within and outside of a local authority’s control.