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Decision Maker: Executive Councillor for Climate Action and Environment
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: Yes
Is subject to call in?: No
Implement findings from the review of trade waste bulky collections and domestic bulky waste collections.
Matter for
Decision
Cambridge City Council is
required to achieve savings of £6.3M over the next four years. The refuse and environment service has been
looking at a whole range of options to:
·
Identify realisable savings.
·
Reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.
·
Increase the percentage of waste re-used or
recycled.
·
Improve or maintain the customer experience.
The City Council offers a
chargeable large item / bulky waste service using in-house collection staff and
two link-tip vehicles. These employees are also used to staff a commercial
‘skip’ type service, using the same vehicles.
There are a total of thirty
one link-tip bodies for the combined bulky waste and commercial service. It is felt that both vehicles need to be
retained as, they are specialist vehicles and it is unlikely that a hire
vehicle can be sourced when the other vehicle requires maintenance / servicing.
This bulky waste service
collects items that are too big to fit in a wheeled bin or are unsuitable to be
disposed of in this manner. Under the
Controlled Waste Regulations 1992, bulky waste is classed as household waste
for which a charge for collection may be made. This is a service that the council
has statutory obligations to provide, but it is a service that could be
provided by a contractor or third party.
The service review
identified four alternative service delivery options for the bulky waste
collection service. These are set out in
the table below.
Decision
of Executive Councillor for Environmental & Waste Services
Approved
the procurement of the collection and disposal of the bulky waste collection
service to a suitably qualified social enterprise, charitable organisation or
furniture re-use organisation in line with Option 3 of the Officer’s report.
Reason for the Decision
As set out in the Officer’s report.
Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected
Not applicable.
Scrutiny
Considerations
The Committee received a report from the Head of Refuse and Environment.
In response to Members’ questions the Head of Refuse and Environment
said the following:
i.
Different contractors were interested in taking
different items eg furniture or electrical. Soft
market testing would be undertaken prior to the start of the contracting
process to see if contractors would take all types of items or just certain
types, thus clarifying if one or more contractor would be needed for the Bulky
Waste Service.
ii.
The Council was legally obliged to check that
contractors took waste to designated disposal points.
iii.
The Council had good working relations with
organisations around the city to reduce waste going to landfill.
iv.
The Council was looking at how the bulky waste
service could be brought back in-house as a contingency plan in case of
possible difficulties with a future contractor(s). Risks and options would be
reviewed over the next six months.
v.
No staffing losses were expected through the
proposal to change in-house bulky waste services to an external contractor(s).
vi.
The Head of Refuse and Environment undertook to
look at ways to get contractors to pass on items for recycling to another third
party if the contractor making the collection were unable to recycle items.
The Committee unanimously resolved to endorse the recommendation.
The Executive Councillor
approved the recommendation.
Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any
Dispensations Granted)
No conflicts of interest were
declared by the Executive Councillor.
Publication date: 25/03/2014
Date of decision: 11/03/2014