A Sussex council has described its switch to an in-house waste services as a ‘resounding triumph’.
Eastbourne borough council took over its waste, recycling and street cleansing services from Kier on June 29, after withdrawing from the East Sussex Joint Waste Partnership.
Staff working for the new Environment First waste, recycling and street cleansing service run by Eastbourne borough council
This came after Kier agreed to an early end to the contract due to ‘significant’ changes in the recycling market (see letsrecycle.com story).
Moving to an in-house service – which the council has dubbed Environment First – gives it ‘greater control’ over its service provision, the borough council has claimed, whilst allowing it to improve its response to issues including missed collections.
Environment First
In 2018 Eastbourne approved £50,000 of funding to set up Environment First, which is being run through the South East Environmental Services Limited company.
Environment First offers a weekly residual waste collection as well as commingled recycling collections. Since the move in-house garden waste has become a paid-for service.
“The service has been running for four weeks and the response so far from residents has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Commenting on the service change, Councillor Jonathan Dow, cabinet member for the environment, said: “In anyone’s language the launch of the new waste and recycling service has been a resounding triumph and I’m delighted that our residents will be the ones who benefit most,” he explained.
“The service has been running for four weeks and the response so far from residents has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Cllr Dow added: “Inevitably, when you’re collecting bins from 45,000 households there will be the occasional issue, the key will be how well we perform in resolving these and that’s where people will see a marked difference from what’s gone before.”
With Eastbourne moving its service in-house, East Sussex Joint Waste Partnership is now made up of Hastings, Wealden and Rother councils – all of which have begun a joint contract with Biffa upon the completion of the Kier contract.
In-house debate
Councils moving waste services in-house has been in the headlines again in recent weeks, with Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Andrew Gwynne, having revealed that a Labour government would prioritise ‘insourcing’ by local authorities (see letsrecycle.com story).
This prompted a strong response from figures in the private sector, with the Environmental Services Association (ESA) and waste management firm Serco both challenging the proposal (see letsrecycle.com story).
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
