Agenda and minutes

Venue: Rennes Room, Civic Centre, Paris Street, Exeter. View directions

Contact: Jo Quinnell, Assistant Democratic Services Officer (Committees)  Telephone 01392 265197 or email  jo.quinnell@exeter.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Chair

Minutes:

Councillor Hannan was nominated as Chair.

2.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from John Staddon (Residents Representative), Simon Ruddy and Simon Lane (Exeter City Council).

3.

Notes of meeting held on 15 April 2015 pdf icon PDF 72 KB

Minutes:

The notes of the meeting held on 15 April 2015 were agreed as a correct record.

4.

Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 58 KB

Minutes:

The Terms of Reference was circulated with the agenda for the information of new Members.

 

It was noted that there were vacancies for residents representatives for Alphington and Priory wards if councillors were able to identify any interested individuals.

5.

Process update

Minutes:

Nick Parsons reported that there had been no significant changes within the Category 1 Animal By-Product (ABP) market and production volumes have remained stable and in line with 2015 forecasts.

 

The reliability of the plant remains high.

6.

Complaints received since the last meeting pdf icon PDF 119 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The report attached to the agenda detailed complaints made since the last meeting and the results of any investigations.

 

The following abbreviations were noted:

 

LF – large flakt tower

SF – small flakt tower

 

These, together with the JLT tower, are the three chemical scrubbers.

 

A complaints summary was circulated (attached), which detailed comparisons for each quarter back to 2002.  A total of 34 complaints had been received in 2015 to date which was at the lowest level since 2002.  There is always a variation between years, but this is a larger than normal reduction in complaints. It was considered that this was partly due to operational activities within the factory.

 

The summary of the number of days where multiple complaints had been received was noted.  Four complaints were made on 6 July.  The factory was not processing at this time and one of the chemical scrubbers was running.  However, on a windy day it is harder to maintain negative pressure on the scrubbers and on this occasion another tower was switched on to assist with this.

 

On 28 September, three raw material deliveries had arrived at the same time, and a raw material odour had been identified.  This was an unusual combination of events, and happens very rarely.  A great deal of planning is put into organising deliveries, but at times is out of the factory’s control due to traffic, driver breaks etc.  At times, the factory receives raw material which they cannot process as they are already shut down. In such instances, the load can be stored within the raw material room (from which air is extracted to the JLT tower). In exceptional circumstances, arrangements can be made to move raw material to the factory’s sister plant at Widnes.

 

The pH in the scrubbers is set to a particular level, and the scrubber regulates itself to maintain these optimum conditions whether the factory is running or not. Less chemical is needed to maintain the pH set points when the factory is shut down and the load on the tower is lower.

 

Nick Parsons reported on some recent activities that may also have led to a decrease in complaints:

 

·         The small and large flakt odour abatement towers have been fitted with dampers to isolate air flows at shutdown times.  An assessment identified that when the factory was shut down the towers were acting as chimneys to draw a small flow of untreated air out of the factory. The dampers have prevented this.

·         The small flakt fan has been fitted with a Variable Speed Drive to provide fan speed control.

·         The No. 2 boiler has been fitted with a new gas register and fuel/air control unit which has provided improved boiler reliability.

·         A building pressure differential unit has been fitted.

·         A new DAF primary effluent treatment plant has been installed at ground level.

·         A new fast acting roller door has been fitted to the warehouse entrance to the plant.

 

Nick also added that the factory had raised production by 15%  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Any other business

Minutes:

There was no other business.

8.

Date of next meeting - Wednesday 13 April at 5.30pm

Minutes:

The date of the next meeting was noted.