Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead is set to award its waste and recycling collection contract to services firm Serco, with the company in line to take over from Veolia from September 2019.
The deal – which will run until 2027 with an option for a further eight-year extension – is expected to be approved by the council’s cabinet this week.
Serco will take over the contract in September
Veolia has worked with the council since 2004 under a contract which had initially been set to expire in April 2019, but an extension was agreed to allow the council to finalise its new contract.
Windsor & Maidenhead council stressed that when procuring the contract, it wanted to keep a weekly collection service in order to “maintain resident satisfaction levels”. The tender was put out with a value of £96 million over the full contract lifespan, the equivalent to £6 million a year.
“The preferred bidder fully met the requirements of the specification, including provision of a weekly waste and recycling service and the additional collection of small electrical items and batteries at the kerbside,” the council said in documents published ahead of its meeting on the plans later this week.
A spokesperson for Serco indicated that the company is unable to comment at this stage of the process.
Processing contract
Alongside the collections contract, the council is also seeking to award a separate contract for the processing of dry mixed recyclables (DMR) – work which is also currently carried out on its behalf by Veolia. This is despite an earlier procurement exercise, at which no suitable bids were received for the DMR contract, the council documents show.
This was put down to concerns around the contract length and the proposed payment mechanism, which included a “shared risk and reward mechanism; one where any reductions or increases in gate fees.
The current DMR processing deal with Veolia is due to expire on 31 March 2019. The council is now seeking to delegate authority to its deputy director for strategy and commissioning in consultation with the lead member for environmental services to agree a direct award of a contract for the service.
The council is looking to procure a separate contract for the process of dry mixed recyclables
This will see a short-term, rolling contract with the council says to allow “an opportunity to commence a second procurement exercise at an appropriate time”.
Greenredeem
The council currently runs a recycling reward scheme for residents through the provider Greenredeem. The scheme began in 2009, but in July 2018 was switched to a lower-cost system ‘to provide the service at a lower cost to taxpayers’.
Through the programme residents earn points for recycling waste at home and redeem them in local shops, restaurants and leisure facilities and can enter in to prize draws.
Previously points had been calculated by weighing the recycling bin but this was replaced with a system allowing residents to confirm their recycling with a one-click button via email.
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Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
