Agenda item

Gateway 5 Contract Management Report: DCLG Weekly Collections Support Fund

Minutes:

Background:

 

This report sought permission to amend the Collection Services and Street Cleansing Service contract currently being delivered and awarded to Veolia Environmental Services. This was to facilitate an increase in the frequency of recycling and organics kerbside collections from fortnightly to weekly. Further information relating to permissions was detailed within the report.

 

It was noted that proposed changes in service delivery were subject to funding from the Department of Communities and Local Government’s  ‘Weekly Collection Support Fund’. This challenge fund had been established by Government to encourage local authorities to retain or reinstate weekly rubbish collections. Medway Council had submitted a bid for both revenue and capital funding proposing an increase in both recycling and organics collections to weekly in line with black sack refuse collections.

 

An addendum report advised that, since the publication of the agenda, the Department for Communities and Local Government had confirmed that the bid had been successful subject to the terms and conditions. The Council would therefore receive funding totalling £14,029,901 over three years for the weekly collections services.

 

It was reported that this Procurement Gateway 5 report had been approved for submission to Cabinet after review and discussion at Regeneration, Community and Culture Directorate Management Team meeting on 25 October and the Strategic Procurement Board on 31 October 2012.

 

The Portfolio Holder and officers were thanked for their efforts in securing the funds.

 

An exempt appendix contained key information in respect of finance and whole-life costings.

 

Decision number:

Decision:

202/2012

The Cabinet confirmed acceptance of the Department of Communities and Local Governmentoffer of funding from the Weekly Collection Support Fund to enable Medway to introduce weekly recycling and organic waste collection and maintain the weekly residual waste collection service for a minimum of 5 years as per the funding criteria.

203/2012

The Cabinet endorsed the publication of this commitment on the Council website and in associated literature produced to promote the weekly collection services.

204/2012

The Cabinet recommended to Council that the capital purchase of the new refuse and recycling fleet, as funded by the allocation of this money, be included in the Capital Programme as soon as possible.

205/2012

The Cabinet approved a contract variation that will facilitate an increase in the frequency of recycling and organics kerbside collections from fortnightly to weekly. The variation will involve a number of existing Bill of Quantities (BoQ) unit prices being incorporated within one encompassing unit price that reflects efficiency savings. This variation must also adequately cover the capital purchase of vehicles through Veolia Environmental Services, which will extract their cost from the existing revenue budget and contract payment mechanism.

206/2012

The Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Assistant Director Legal and Corporate Services, in consultation with the Portfolio Holders for Frontline Services and Finance, to make any subsequent adjustments that may be required as a result of detailed terms of the funding.

 

Reasons:

 

The decisions are provided on the basis that this enhanced service will

  • put the customer at the centre of everything we do by satisfying past and current research indicating that residents would welcome increased recycling collections;
  • giving value for money by using external capital and revenue funding to create a scheme likely to save in excess of £1million in disposal costs over the lifetime of the current contract;
  • help create a cleaner, greener environment by diverting more resources to recycling and composting while giving Medway a very real chance of hitting its 2015 recycling rate target of 45%.

Supporting documents: