Meeting documents

For Members to consider the attached report.

Contact officer: Naomi Batson 01296 585506

The Committee received a report regarding the street cleansing and horticulture contract with Suez UK and John O’Connor which was due to end in January 2020. Work had been ongoing since January 2018 to determine how these services could be delivered upon the contract’s expiry.

The outcome of a Member/Officer workshop in February 2018 indicated a preference of either an in-house delivery of the service or a re-procurement OJEU compliant tender process when the 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 was given on whether to include wider waste services in a procurement exercise. However this was discounted for numerous reasons which included the desire to build on the commercial and transformational successes of the Waste and Recycling Service. 

A market survey was 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 considered the options in May 2018 across various criteria which included: Agility, Capacity, Control, Cost, External Income Generation, Human Resource Resilience, Innovation and Value for Money. The Board 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 also felt that in terms of resources, AVDC were already delivering a successful in-house waste collection service which meant AVDC had internal knowledge and expertise in direct service provision. This would include the depot, workshops, fleet management, software systems, and health and safety. The 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.

If there was a final unitary decision for Buckinghamshire then 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 agreeing the extension, it would mitigate the risk of non-service delivery during the transition period to a unitary authority.

Members sought more information from officers on various aspects of the report which included:-

      i.        Management of current in-house waste collection workforce at Pembroke Road and vehicle waste transfer notes.

     ii.        Central Bedfordshire’s experience of becoming unitary in 2009 and the effect on their waste, horticultural and street cleansing services.

    iii.        Current performance of the two suppliers.

   iv.        The impact of each option in a single unitary scenario.

The Committee appreciated the importance of the Street and Horticultural contract and noted the significance it had as a customer-facing service. After further discussion, Members of the Committee agreed with the recommendation that had been proposed to them.

RESOLVED –

That the Scrutiny Committee’s comments be referred to Cabinet when they consider the item on 11 September 2018 and that the Committee were in support of Option 1.A in the report.