Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of interest raised.

To consider a report of the Director of Customer and Digital (enclosed)

Members of the Committee received a report by the Director (Customer and Digital) which listed a number of options for the Committee to consider for the new waste contract.

The Council’s waste collection contract, currently being delivered by Veolia, was worth £33m over a ten year period.  The contract, which was due to expire on 31 March 2019, was the largest the Council had procured.  Due to this high risk procurement in terms of value and reputational risk, Ricardo Energy and Environment had been appointed (following a procurement exercise) to provide consultancy support. 

It was noted that the Medium Term Financial Strategy had identified a £250,000 saving target for this contract for the 2019/20 budget. Depending on the outcome of the tendering process, the savings may exceed this figure.

It was reported that Ricardo Energy and Environment had been instructed to model a number of options for the new waste contract.  Work had begun to identify the potential options, risks and priorities for the new contract.  There were a number of unknowns which included what disposal facilities would be available, changes to legislation as a result of the Great Britain coming out of the European Union and the likely costs of the new contract.

The report listed three ways in which the household waste collection service could be delivered -

·         Continue as is with an externally provided service – waste collection has been outsourced for over 25 years at Chorley. The contractor is responsible for providing the whole service including staff management and performance.

·         Deliver the service in house - the council may wish to consider operating waste collection services in-house. This could allow more operational flexibility, but would mean a significant increase in workforce with corresponding resource implications and demands in terms of staff management and HR. The council does not own a depot of a suitable size to house waste collection vehicles and staff, the Bengal St depot could not accommodate both waste and streetscene services.

·         Joint or partnership working with other councils - we will seek to align contract end dates with other Lancashire authorities if possible. Other opportunities may exist to co-ordinate or share service elements such as sharing a waste depot, fleet maintenance etc. Issues may exist if collection services are different between authorities.

The consultants would model and cost up the three options based on the council’s data along with the existing model.  The consultants were considering three models –

·         Option A - Four weekly blue bin collections (plastic bottles, cans and glass), other streams as now.

·         Option B - Three weekly collections of refuse, blue bins (plastic bottles, cans and glass) and brown bins (paper and card), garden waste to remain fortnightly.

·         Options C - Three weekly collection of refuse other streams to remain as current.

An example of a schedule setting out the three options was also included in the report and is set out below -