The need for local authorities to recognise and mitigate risk when procuring contracts was highlighted during a workshop session at the LARAC Conference last week.
The discussions took place at the 2018 LARAC Conference, at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham
And, the panel agreed that more work needs to be done to now ensure that any risks in waste contracts are shared between the contractor and the council.
The panel included Brian Mayne, regional director of Ricardo Energy and Environment, Amanda Padfield director of public development at Suez and James Perkins, waste strategic lead at Bristol City Council.
Firstly, groups broke into discussions about some of the biggest risks they have faced as local authorities when dealing with waste contracts.
The reoccurring themes were largely issues with end markets and a fall in value in material, which has led to complications in entering long-term contracts.
Many local authorities mentioned that to counter this, the terms are reviewed periodically with both losses and profits generally shared.
James Perkins of Bristol City Council said this method was important, as local authorities now need to be aware of risks involved in contracts
“We as local authorities have to move away from simply passing on the risk, we have got to share this now,” he explained.
Mr Perkins added: “Once you have established a risk you can identify them, that is the key. For example, some local authorities have discussed with contractors to isolate recycling revenue as part of a wider contract so it doesn’t bring down the full contract. I think sometimes there isn’t enough of this type of communications between a contractor and local authorities.”
DMR
Another issue often raised by local authorities is the reoccurring issue of budget cuts, and the impact therefore that contract changes can have on the overall service.
With several contracts up for renewal in the next couple of years, some of which are long-term, Amanda Padfield of Suez said that the price of a contract is often linked to the quality of a material.
She said: “With regards to income, sometimes it got to the point where we couldn’t find a market at all. The price is often linked to service, so with a standard DMR, one may need to consider what happens next and not simply just rolling out the previous contract. There will be lots of contracts up for grabs and contracts will be competitive.”
Single system
In another session at the LARAC Conference, there were discussions on the impacts of restricted residual waste and also the changing frequencies of collections.
Each member of the panel discussed some of the recent roll-outs it undertook, with varying results.
For example, Natasha Epstein, contract manager for the South London Waste Partnership explained that a recent roll-out of a new system which would see the introduction of new recycling boxes led to several missed collections, and even national headlines, as the councils which chose to implement the changes straight away struggled with the changes.
However, Ms Epstein says that the problems have now been fixed, and those which chose to implement the changes later can now learn from this.
HWRC changes
Changes to HWRCs were said to have caused some issues
Elsewhere, Andrew Gore, of Gloucestershire Council outlined some of the difficulties faced on the changes he introduced, including weekly recycling collections, in an attempt to simplify the system with fewer containers and also reducing the size of the bins.
Also, the council restricted residents from outside the area from using the HWRC and simplified the opening hours. So far, Mr Gore said that this has been relatively straight-forward and has been well received, despite some complications at its HWRCs. However, any issues have been dealt with, according to Mr Gore, with the introduction of automatic number plate recognition software.
Later on in the session, the authorities all agreed that calls for a single, nationwide recycling system, as has been suggested by many charities and pressure groups, would simply not work.
People pointed to problems with garden sizes and various other factors and said that a single system could actually have a detrimental effect on recycling rates.
The post Councils must ‘identify risks’ in new waste contracts appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
