MD2360 Drinking Water Fountains Programme – 2018-2021

Plastic packaging blights our streets and finds its way into oceans, harming wildlife and taking centuries to break down whilst releasing toxic chemicals. Single-use plastic bottles form the most prevalent form of plastic packaging in our oceans and accelerated action is needed to phase out non-recyclable plastic packaging.

Use of single-use packaging materials, including coffee cups and plastic bottles, is growing and putting increasing pressure on local waste management services. WRAP’s plastic market situation report 2016 estimated the UK produces around 2.2m tonnes of plastic packaging with only around half (or 900,000 tonnes) recycled. In the UK, around 825,000 tonnes of plastic bottles are produced a year. This leads to around 125,000 tonnes produced in London. Each year, Londoners buy around 1.2 billion single-use plastic bottles, and only one third of plastics is recycled in the home.

There is a significant opportunity to reduce London’s waste bill and environmental impact if food waste and single-use packaging were to be cut.

This decision sets out the plans and outcomes for tackling single-use plastic water bottles, through the installation of water fountains, in partnership with Thames Water, and supporting a ‘refill culture’. Water accounts for 37% of all drinks in plastic bottles, and most bottles are consumed out of the home and ‘on the go’, with research showing that an increase in refill points, and more accessible refill points, are key factors that would encourage people to use a reusable water bottle . A new network of publicly accessible water fountains, alongside other refill points, will therefore aim to help people break the habit of purchasing single-use plastic water bottles.

The programme will be funded out of the agreed £2.75m allocation in the Environment Team budget. An agreement was reached with Thames Water, and confirmed in a Memorandum of Understanding signed in September, that they would match £2.5m of this programme to provide a £5m fund for a new network of drinking water fountains across the capital (and to bear the cost of management and maintenance of the assets installed for 25 years estimated at circa £11m). Details of the expenditure proposed are set out at section 5.2 below but in summary it is proposed that:

· Out of the £2.5m, at least £1,826,000 (all capital) be awarded to Thames Water, and match-funded by them, as a contribution to the costs of the partnership project. This figure was agreed at the same time as the Memorandum of Understanding, but the total budget will be reprofiled to ensure as much funding supports installations as possible. Thames Water will be managing the procurement of the purchase, installation, maintenance and cleaning of the fountains through a competitive tender process. Thames Water will fund an estimated operating expenditure (for maintenance and cleaning) of £450,000 per year, or more than an additional £11m over a 25 year period.

· The remaining £674,000 will be the subject of a further Decision, with budget assigned to further capital expenditure, and the remainder for staffing, awareness-raising and behaviour change campaigns, and monitoring and evaluation work.

Three options were previously assessed for their suitability to deliver drinking water fountains for London. These involved the GLA’s: (a) entry into grant funding agreements with land owners to provide a contribution to their costs of delivering fountains on their land; (b) procuring a supplier to deliver fountains as a contractor; or (c) where on GLA group land or where the GLA group had permission to install a fountain procuring a supplier to deliver fountains as a concessionaire. None of these options offered an effective or efficient solution to the issue of who would pay for the ongoing cleaning, maintenance and liabilities associated with the fountains.

After having considered the options, discussing with Thames Water and taking commercial law advice from TfL Legal on proposals, a preferred option was developed whereby funding be awarded to Thames Water as a contribution to its costs of the project to install fountains and under which it has agreed to own the assets, install them, and maintain and clean them over the long term. Working with the GLA to identify sites, Thames Water will enter into direct agreements with site-holders and manage the risks and liabilities associated with their installation and long-term management. This option enables the more coordinated management of one lead funding recipient rather than multiple recipients. It also avoids the need to: enter into multiple agreements for the provision of and assumption of risk and liabilities in respect of works, supplies and services on third party land; provide further (cash and non-cash) resources to procure the works, supplies and services required for delivery; and secure any consents required for installation. It should also be noted that as the major water utilities and statutory water undertaking in London they hold specific expertise in the procurement, installation and maintenance of water-related infrastructure in London. Taking all of the above into account officers are of view therefore, that this is the most efficient and effective option.

Site owners or occupiers will have to apply to have a fountain installed. First round applications for fountains will open in mid- November and close in early December. Further rounds will be run according to the number and quality of applications in the first round.

Applications will be assessed according to key criteria:

· Locations with high pedestrian footfall, and where ‘on the go’ plastics use is most prevalent (such as commuter routes and tourist areas).
· Locations that will be publicly accessible for most of the day (preferably 24 hours).
· Locations that are not already served by existing fountains (unless there is a pressing demand for extra fountain provision).
· Secondary criteria will also be used to maximise the fountains’ social impacts, such as health and community benefits.

In addition, the partnership with Thames Water will only see fountains installed in their supply area. Further delivery models may be required for the three other supply companies covering smaller outer-London areas, and funding (outside the £2.5m) may be required for installations there.

Lessons learned from the pilot programme (whereby 20 drinking fountains are being installed by the Mayor in partnership with Zoological Society of London (ZSL)) will inform the application and site selection process, including issues such as streamlining the Thames Water connection and certification process, leaving adequate time to resolve planning and highway permissions, minimising extraneous signage, and providing solutions for long-term maintenance and cleaning.

The Memorandum of Understanding with Thames Water has set out the following objectives:

• Increase access to tap (potable) water available to Londoners when ‘on the go’ reducing the environmental impact (including resource use and pollution) of single-use plastic bottles in London, particularly single-use plastic water bottles.
• Boost awareness, understanding and engagement on the benefits and quality of tap water and the impact of single-use plastics, resulting in a cultural shift with Londoners carrying reusable bottles to fill up at fountains

More specifically, the outputs and outcomes will be as follows:

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the Mayor of London must have ‘due regard’ of the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The drinking fountains programme outlined in this MD stems from the policies and proposals in the London Environment Strategy which has been informed by a full Integrated Impact Assessment, including a consideration of equalities.

Projects delivered through the drinking fountains delivery programme will continue to engage as many Londoners as possible to help to meet the needs of people sharing protected characteristics under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.

Grant application processes will require a statement about the organisations’ approach to equality and/or the submission of organisations’ equality policies.

Recipients of funding will be required to outline how they will provide environmental and community benefit. This includes information on the intended beneficiaries.

Key risks and issues

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

London Environment Strategy

The drinking fountain programme will contribute towards the efficient and effective delivery of policies and proposals in the London Environment Strategy, specifically objective 7.1, to drive resource efficiency to significantly reduce waste, focusing on food waste and single-use packaging waste, and Proposal 7.1.1.b, to support campaigns and initiatives to cut the use of single-use packaging, through the following actions:

• Pilot water refill schemes in different areas of London to test their effectiveness for improving access to tap water. The Mayor will work with City to Sea, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and other partners to use the insights from the pilots to inform the roll out of a London-wide water refill scheme.
• Work with ZSL’s Oneless campaign to install 20 drinking water fountains as an initial pilot.
• Provide funding over three years to fund the installation of more drinking water fountains and behaviour change campaigns to drive a water refill culture.
• Require new major public realm developments to install water fountains in appropriate locations
• Work with Transport for London and Network Rail to identify suitable locations in the transport network to be refill points.
• Lead by example across the GLA group by phasing out plastic bottle sales, removing single-use plastics in cafes and facilities, and improving access to tap water on all GLA premises.
• Work with the supply chain, from manufacturers to retailers, and large employers to waste authorities, to roll out measures to cut the impact of single-use coffee cups, such as increasing recycling facilities, or supporting initiatives to increase use of reusable cups.
• Work with partners to trial a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and other commonly recycled materials in London, while government decides what it will do at a national level.

The New London Plan

The programme will also support delivery of the following polices:

Policy D7 Public Realm:

• The provision of free drinking water fountains helps improve public health, reduces waste from single-use plastic bottles and supports the circular economy through the use of reusable water bottles. Free drinking water fountains that can refill water bottles as well as be drunk from should be provided in appropriate locations in new or redeveloped public realm. Appropriate locations for these water fountains should be identified by boroughs during the planning process. These locations include areas with high levels of pedestrian activity, such as in town centres and inside shopping malls, as well as areas of the public realm used for play, exercise and relaxing, such as parks and squares. The ongoing management and maintenance of facilities should be secured and agreed at planning stage to ensure long-term provision is achievable.

Policy S17 Reducing Waste and supporting the Circular Economy:

• Waste reduction, increases in material re-use and recycling, and reductions in waste going for disposal will be achieved by:
  1. Promoting a more circular economy that improves resource efficiency and innovation to keep products and materials at their highest use for as long as possible.
  2. Encouraging waste minimisation and waste avoidance through the reuse of materials and using fewer resources in the production and distribution of products.
  3. Ensuring that there is zero biodegradable or recyclable waste to landfill by 2026.
  4. Meeting or exceeding the recycling targets for each of the following waste streams and generating low-carbon energy in London from suitable remaining waste:
     
     • municipal waste – 65 per cent by 2030
     • construction, demolition and excavation waste – 95 per cent by 2020
  5. Designing developments with adequate and easily accessible storage space that supports the separate collection of dry recyclables (at least card, paper, mixed plastics, metals, glass) and food.

Mayoral approval is sought for expenditure of £1,826,000 to support the drinking water fountains programme detailed above and, in the table, below.

The table below provides details of how the £1,826,000 is to be spent from 2018-19 to 2020-21 and will be funded from the Environment Team’s revenue programme budget.

It will fund the capital element of the programme, covering fountain purchase and installation costs. Funding will be subject to a strong governance framework, with expenditure only awarded once installation milestones are hit, and with appropriate evidence of spend.

The profile of capital expenditure will be reviewed once the rate of applications and installations becomes clearer after first round applications have been assessed and started to be installed. It is envisaged that the largest capital amount will be required in 2019-20, when the installation rate should be at its highest.

As detailed in the table above £1,826,000 will need to be converted from revenue to capital budget between 2018-19 and 2020-21.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

- the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the statutory powers of the GLA to do such things as may be considered to further, and or be facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the furthering of, the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London; and

- in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;

(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

(c) consult with appropriate bodies.

In taking the decisions requested, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Officers must ensure that the GLA and Thames Water execute a funding agreement on appropriate terms before any commitment is made to award the funding proposed.