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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
RESOLVED: To note the content of the report.
RESOLVED: I. To note the outturn position for the financial year ended 31March 2026. II. To approve the Annual Return and authorised the Chair to sign the Annual Return on behalf of the Joint Committee, and approved its subsequent submission to Audit Wales to commence the 2025/26 audit.
RESOLVED: To note the content of the report.
Apologies were received from Councillors Rhian Howells, Ruba Sivagnanam, Amanda McConnell and Catrin Maby.
None received.
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 9 December 2025, were agreed as a correct record.
None.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: To note the content of the report.
Andrew Williamson presented the Update Report for contract year 2025-26 (ending 31 March 2026) to committee which highlighted the following: · A total of 145,864.00 tonnes of contract waste was delivered by the partnership during this period. · This was below the projected profile of 168,408.00 tonnes and 7,930 tonnes lower than the previous year’s delivery, continuing the long-term downward trend in contractual waste. · All partnership waste was treated at Trident Park and accounted for about 40% of the facility’s total input. · All key performance indicators were achieved by the contractor through the diversion of unprocessed waste from landfill. · The contract generated enough electricity to power the equivalent of 34,897 homes, delivering an estimated reduction in carbon dioxide of 67,332 tonnes compared with sending the same amount of waste to landfill. · The Trident Park facility continues to achieve R1 Status which is a requirement of the contract from Welsh Government. · Heat has begun to be delivered to the Heat Network to power several facilities. · The Prosiect Gwyrdd Community Benefits Fund met four times in the past year and awarded £49,947 to 33 different community initiatives. · Regarding public engagement, Trident Park had 134 visits/events attended with 6,553 total attendees this year. Following the presentation, the Chairperson invited questions and comments from committee members. Members noted the positive feedback that less contractual waste was being sent to Viridor but raised whether there was a limit where this reduction would become an issue for the facility and its operation. AW explained that Viridor would seek a third party to replace the waste that would previously have been delivered to the facility by the partner authorities. Waste markets and the prices Viridor could achieve for third party waste would come into consideration. Members asked for more information regarding the total amount of waste needed for the facility to continue to operate, as well as future waste projections. The facility is permitted for 425,000 tonnes of waste per annum but will not necessarily burn that amount depending on downtime, planned outages and maintenance of the facility, meaning there is no typical year concerning total input. Committee was informed that the partnership was looking at the modelling to see where it would stand over the remainder of the contract, highlighting that the projected amount of 168,408 tonnes of waste was not met last year. This work would help Viridor with planning what waste it would need to attract to the facility going forward. Referring to Viridor looking at other sources of waste, members questioned what would happen if the levels of waste coming to the plant reached critically low levels. Officers confirmed that such a scenario had not been envisaged and that the onus would be on Viridor to operate the facility and maintain the levels of waste required. The partnership has to make a minimum guaranteed payment, which is the equivalent of delivering 135,000 tonnes per annum to the facility, should the partnership not deliver that quantity there are mechanisms (subject to certain conditions) within the contract that put the onus on Viridor to use reasonable endeavours to find replacement waste (substitute waste). Should Substitute Waste be secured there are financial mechanisms to mitigate potential losses to the Partnership Members asked if they would receive a separate report on the charitable donations, highlighting that Newport had previously been underrepresented in this area. Officers confirmed they could provide this information and that the partnership had provided funding across the five partner authorities, noting that Newport had received more than in previous years. RESOLVED: To note the content of the report.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: I. To note the outturn position for the financial year ended 31March 2026. II. To approve the Annual Return and authorised the Chair to sign the Annual Return on behalf of the Joint Committee, and approved its subsequent submission to Audit Wales to commence the 2025/26 audit.
Marc Falconer presented the 2025/26 outturn and annual financial return report to committee which highlighted the following: · The gross underspend of just under £100,000 is primarily as a result of there being no calls on the contingency budget or the advisors. · The partnership has been able to repeat its recent practice of offering partners a £10,000 rebate on their partner contributions, bringing the underspend down closer to £50,000. · A balance of £130,000 is available in the reserve account to support Prosiect Gwyrdd expenditure moving forward to 2026/27 and subsequent financial years. · As Prosiect Gwyrdd is under the £2 million expenditure threshold, it is not required to produce a full statement of accounts. · Members were provided with a summary of the balance sheet position as well as the annual governance statement and details of a review by internal audit. There were no questions or comments from committee members regarding this item. RESOLVED: I. To note the outturn position for the financial year ended 31March 2026. II. To approve the Annual Return and authorised the Chair to sign the Annual Return on behalf of the Joint Committee, and approved its subsequent submission to Audit Wales to commence the 2025/26 audit.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: To note the content of the report.
Andrew Williamson presented the report to committee and explained it was in response to a request at the previous meeting where information concerning the transportation of waste was requested and discussed. The report highlighted the following: · The report focuses on partnership waste only as third party waste is a matter for the facility and the relevant third party. · All vehicle movements linked to the facility were considered during the original planning application process. · Each partner authority is responsible for its own transport movement and payment for those movements as transport falls outside of the main contact. · 20,582 vehicle movements were used to deliver the 145,864.00 tonnes of waste delivered this year. This accounts for 40% of waste at Trident Park and 54% of the vehicles delivering this waste. · The partnership is developing a Sustainable Transport Plan which will look at how Viridor deals with its products, residues and waste, but also to address the sustainable transportation of waste. · The plan will be in two parts with the first part covering the impact on local communities and how vehicles are routed to the facility to avoid residential areas as much as possible. · The second part of the plan will cover sustainable areas such as vehicle standards, minimisation of local impacts and a review of sustainable vehicle usage. · This plan will draw upon all five partner authorities’ ambitions for sustainable transport and how it will impact their carbon savings. · There are no direct financial implications in this plan, and the legal implications are set out in the agreement between Viridor and the five partner authorities. The Chairperson invited questions and comments from committee members. Raising that the Vale of Glamorgan Freight Line was near to the Atlantic Trading Estate where the VOG plans to move its waste vehicles to, as well Viridor being near a railway line, members asked if the partnership had considered the use of railway to transport waste. Officers explained that the plant was not built to accommodate rail deliveries but that the partnership was able to consider such requests. Some of the IBA had been transported to Avonmouth via rail but this required vehicles to be loaded at Trident Park to move the waste to another facility at the docks where it is bulked up and loaded onto a train. The logistics involved for localised rail deliveries would potentially negate any benefits derived by transporting via rail. Members asked what facilities were available at Trident Park for electric vehicles. Officers confirmed there was a shift to electric or ultra-low emission vehicles which incorporate alternative fuels as part of the sustainability plan. Cardiff Council has shifted most of its collection vehicles to electric using the infrastructure at its own sites. The ambitions of each authority and how ultra-low emission vehicles would impact them could be considered in the transport plan. Trident Park does not currently have infrastructure on site for charging larger vehicles, only for smaller personal vehicles. If the authorities decide they have a specific need to be considered, then the partnership can discuss with Viridor to see if they can meet that need. Members commented that a Sustainable Transport Plan would be good to have in place given the large number of vehicles at the site and considering the overall ambition the committee is trying to achieve. RESOLVED: To note the content of the report.
8 December 2026 at 11:00am
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