Agenda item

Report by Service Director, Waste Management Services

Cllr Toby Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Development Management, Strategic Housing and Waste presented a report which sought a decision from Cabinet on whether to deliver the waste and recycling collection service in-house or to invite tenders for the service.

Cabinet noted that the current main contract was due to terminate in 2016 and the current contract covering the West Wiltshire area was due to terminate in 2014 with an option to extend to 2016.

Details of the various elements of the waste and recycling service were presented  together with the options available for the future delivery of the service within the context of the Council’s Waste Management Strategy, details of which were also presented. Cllr Sturgis recommended options (i) (b) and (iii) of the report which essentially would mean inviting tenders for the service.

The report had been the subject of consideration by a specially convened meeting of the Environment Select Committee on 18 June.  Cllr Peter Edge, Vice-Chairman of the Select Committee who had chaired the meeting expressed disappointment that the report had only been made available to his Committee at the time of being made available to Cabinet. He was concerned that receiving reports late could compromise Scrutiny’s ability to thoroughly scrutinise proposals.

Cllr Simon Killane, Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee echoed these comments suggesting that arrangements should be made to provide proper and timely engagement with Scrutiny. The Leader suggested that this was something which could be looked into by Cllr Killane, Corporate Director Dr Carlton Brand and the Designated Scrutiny Officer, Paul Kelly.

Cllr Sturgis explained that the report which was quite complex in nature had been made available to Cabinet as well as the Committee and all other members as soon as it had been completed and could not therefore have been provided any earlier.

Cllr Edge presented a report which documented the views and recommendations of the Select Committee as follows:

‘The Committee wishes to offer endorsement of the general contents of the report and recommends that:

The wording in the proposals of the Cabinet report on pages 3 and 5 be amended to recommend that Cabinet invite tenders for the delivery of the waste and recycling collection service (including the chargeable waste collection service) for two options: 

1)    to include provision of a co-mingled collection of dry recyclable material with separate collection of glass;

2) to include provision of a kerbside sort collection of dry recyclable material.

And upon receiving more details make a determination on whether to deliver services in-house or to pursue the tender further at a future date’.

Cllr Sturgis explained that due to time constraints, it would not be possible to delay making a decision. Furthermore, the tender documentation would make it clear that the Council would not be obliged to accept a tender. Costs would be considered as part of the evaluation of tenders received.

Cllr Sturgis answered questions and responded to points of detail. He also thanked Tracy Carter, Service Director for Waste Management Services for her hard work in putting together such a comprehensive report.

Resolved:

That Cabinet agrees to:

            (a)        invite tenders for the delivery of the waste and recycling collection service (including the chargeable waste collection service) for two options:

·         to include provision of a co-mingled collection of dry recyclable material with separate collection of glass

·         to include provision of a kerbside sort collection of dry recyclable material.

(b)       invite tenders for the following waste management services as three lots at the same time as inviting tenders as in (a) above: 

            (i)         landfill capacity or landfill diversion capacity for residual waste (excluding the treatment of residual waste under the contracts with Hills Waste Solutions for diversion of waste from landfill to the Lakeside Energy from Waste plant and the Northacre mechanical biological treatment plant)

            (ii)        garden waste composting capacity

(iii)       transfer stations, wood waste treatment, servicing household recycling centres and materials (including plastic) recovery facility capacity for two options:

·         the sorting of co-mingled dry recyclable material

·         the sorting of co-mingled plastic and the bulking of other dry recyclable materials

(to include a percentage share of income from the sale of recyclable materials).

Reason for decision

To enable the council to maintain service delivery for residents and chargeable waste customers, to comply with its statutory duties to collect and dispose of waste and to continue to progress towards achieving statutory targets once existing contracts expire.