Surrey county council has proposed creating a single-tier waste disposal and collection service – separate from the Surrey Waste Partnership – as it seeks to unburden itself of rising landfill and EfW costs.
And, the council’s cabinet has already voted to transfer some of its waste disposal functions to four district and borough councils under the Surrey Waste Partnership collection contract later this year.
Surrey county council is looking to develop a single-tier collection and disposal service
The collections contract, which begins in June, initially involves Elmbridge, Mole Valley, Surrey Heath and Woking – and additional councils have the option to join as it progresses.
Single-tier
The transfer is the first step towards the county council being able to form a new single-tier organisation, co-owned with district and borough councils, which will oversee all collections and disposal of waste in Surrey.
Mike Goodman, Surrey county council’s cabinet member for Environment and Planning, said: “At a time when our budgets are under huge strain from rising demand for services, teaming up with other councils in Surrey will help us keep costs down while also delivering high-quality recycling and waste services.
“I’m pleased we’re now taking the first steps towards creating a joint waste service for Surrey which has the potential to save up to £12 million-a-year through councils working together for the benefit of residents.”
Cllr Mike Goodman, cabinet member for environment, said budgets are under ‘huge strain’
Councillors have agreed the development of a plan to transfer core waste disposal functions to the new entity by 2019, including its 25-year contract with Suez. Detailed proposals are due in June 2017.
According to a county council report submitted to the cabinet, the plan will deliver ‘significant cost savings’ while improving services and value.
Costs
The report remarks that the way waste is managed in Surrey ‘has resulted in a complicated set of statutory and non-statutory financial transfers from the council to the boroughs and districts’ – totalling £11 million per year.
Surrey county council has also highlighted the rising cost of disposal as a concern. Between 2009/10 and 2015/16, waste spending by the council rose by 10% – around £7 million.
‘The increased burden’, according to the council, has been due to energy from waste prices tracking rising landfill costs. While Surrey only sent 5% of its residual waste to landfill last year, the average disposal cost for the county ‘has increased from £71 per tonne in 2009/10 to £105 per tonne in 2015/16’.
The county council has already cut staffing levels for management of waste disposal ‘as far as possible’ and adds: “A cost efficiencies programme between SCC and Suez requires Suez to market test their main cost areas, including landfill, green waste composting, food waste processing, and bulk haulage every three years. This process ensures that SCC is getting demonstrable best value from these services.
“SCC is also carrying out a review of the Suez contract to deliver further opportunities for efficiencies and cost savings.”
Partnership
In the meantime, the council has already voted to integrate some of its disposal functions with four Surrey Waste Partnership authorities to ‘demonstrate the early benefits of single tier working’, ‘deliver savings’ and ‘reduce duplications inherent in the current system’.
The four joint collection authorities will take on some disposal functions
While all 12 Surrey councils are part of the Surrey Waste Partnership, only Elmbridge, Woking, Surrey Heath and Mole Valley have so far agreed to be part of a joint collection contract.
Waste management firm Amey has been selected as preferred bidder to deliver the joint contract worth about £100 million, which could run for 10 years and handle a third of waste generated in Surrey (see letsrecycle.com story).
Disposal functions passed on to the four councils later this year include transferring kerbside improvement initiatives, data monitoring, payments to collection authorities and overseeing how recyclables are processed when current arrangements come to an end.
Savings
As an interim solution to save on its 2017/18 waste budget, the county council has also passed a number of measures including:
- Moving from an annual lump sum to variable payments to support food waste collections, paid at a rate of £16 per tonne
- A 25% reduction in green waste payments
- Fixed payments from collection authorities equivalent to a 10% reduction in the recycling credit rate
- A £445,000 reduction in payment to the Surrey Waste Partnership Distribution Fund, with monies to be ring-fenced for new projects aimed at increasing recycling performance.
The post Surrey set to create single-tier waste service appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
