Meeting documents

Councillor Sir Beville Stanier

Cabinet Member for Waste and Licensing

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Naomi Batson (01296) 585506

(a)          Decision(s)

(1)          That the Environment and Living Scrutiny Committee be thanked for their consideration and feedback on the Street Cleansing and Horticultural Services contract.

(2)          That full Council be recommended to approve Delivery Option 1.A  as evaluated and identified in the confidential section of the Cabinet report, as the preferred option for the future service delivery of Street Cleansing and Horticultural Services, from 2020.

(3)          That, subject to recommendation (2) being approved by full Council, it be noted that a funding proposal relating to the approved option will be developed and then reported to Cabinet and Council as part of the Capital Programme Update 2019/20 to 2022/23.

(b)          Reason(s) for Decision(s)

So that arrangements can be put in place when the existing street cleansing and horticulture contract ends in January 2020.

(c)        Alternative Options Considered

These are covered in the confidential report.

(d)       Relevant Scrutiny Committee

Environment and Living.  That Committee had already considered the report submitted to Cabinet and its comments were taken fully into account in recommending a preferred option to full Council.  That Committee had expressed a preference for option 1.A.  Cabinet’s recommendations will now be submitted to Council and as such are not subject to call-in.

(e)        Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

None.

Work had commenced in January 2018 to determine how the existing street cleansing and horticultural contract and services could be delivered when the current contract expired in January 2020.

Cabinet received a report and background information, as well as the appendices in the confidential part of the agenda, that had been considered by the Environment and Living Scrutiny Committee on 24 July, 2018, following the recent appraisal process for future service delivery.

The outcome of a Member/Officer workshop in February 2018 had indicated a preference for either an in-house delivery of the service or a re-procurement OJEU compliant tender process when the current contract expired. The workshop considered the following options:

a)            Street and Horticultural Services (as is) either in-house or full procurement process of joint services

b)            Waste, Street and Horticultural Services either in-house service or full procurement of joint services

c)            Waste and Street Services either in-house service or full procurement process. Horticultural Services would be delivered separately, either in-house or contracted

Consideration had also been given as to whether to include wider waste services in a procurement exercise.  However this had been discounted for numerous reasons which included the aspiration to build on the commercial and transformational successes of the Waste and Recycling Service.

A market survey had been carried out by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) to investigate what other Local Authorities did for their street and horticultural services. The survey found that of the Authorities that responded:-

·                    88% delivered street cleansing in-house.

·                    73% delivered parks and horticulture services in-house.

·                    63% jointly managed and delivered both street cleansing and horticulture services.

The Waste Transformation Board had considered the options in May 2018 against various criteria which included: Agility, Capacity, Control, Cost, External Income Generation, Human Resource Resilience, Innovation and Value for Money.  The Board had felt that having control and flexibility of the service was a high priority and would allow for adaptation to changing circumstances.  Members would also have the ability to determine how the services were discharged.

The Board had also felt that in terms of resources, AVDC were already delivering a successful in-house waste collection service which meant the Council had internal knowledge and expertise in direct service provision.  This included the depot, workshops, fleet management, software systems, and health and safety. The Cabinet report contained two high scoring options for the service delivery (Option 1.A and Option 3) with their risks outlined. Both options offered similar annual savings to the Council.  Detailed information on the options and tendering process was included in the confidential part of the agenda.  Members referred to this information in general terms during their discussions and deliberations.

Members were informed that if there was a final unitary decision for Buckinghamshire, there was the option for the current contract to be extended for up to two years until January 2022.  Although this was subject to the contractor’s agreement the extension, it would mitigate the risk of non-service delivery during the transition period to a unitary authority.

The Environment and Living Scrutiny Committee had considered the appraisal process and information on 24 July, 2018.  Members had appreciated the importance of the Street and Horticultural contract and noted the significance it had as a customer-facing service.  The Committee had been supportive of Delivery Option 1.A.

RESOLVED –

(1)          That the Scrutiny Committee be thanked for its consideration and feedback on the Street Cleansing and Horticultural Services contract.

(2)          That full Council be recommended to approve Delivery Option 1.A as the preferred option.

(3)          That, subject to recommendation (2) being approved by full Council, it be noted that a funding proposal relating to the approved option would be developed and then reported to Cabinet and Council as part of the Capital Programme Update 2019/20 to 2022/23.