Agenda item

B Report of the Director of Customer and Communities (Copy herewith)

2.1       Cabinet, subject to confirmation of commitments after the Alcatel standstill period, appointed Bidder B as the Preferred Bidder and agreed to award the Environmental Services Contract for a period of 10 years, at a price of £97,697,867 (not including indexation /inflation), with an option to extend by mutual agreement for up to a further 10 years, subject to satisfactory performance of the contract and Cabinet approval nearer that time.

2.2       Cabinet delegated to the Director of Customers and Communities, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment, authority to do all that would be reasonably required, necessary and appropriate to implement Cabinet’s decision to award the contract to the Preferred Bidder and to achieve successful completion of the environmental services procurement process, including:

·         Agreeing terms and entering into leases, in line with the Preferred Bidder’s property, vehicle, equipment and container proposals

·         Providing final approval and execution of the contract following confirmation of commitments.

2.3       Cabinet approved, in accordance with the advice of the Council’s Chief Finance Officer, expenditure of £11.938m into the capital programme, funded by borrowing with up to £10m of the Minimum Revenue and interest charges being offset by the use of existing reserves for the vehicles, equipment and containers that would be used to provide the new environmental services contract.

2.4       Cabinet agreed, in accordance with the advice of the Council’s advisors that the Council would pay for the cost of bringing the facilities up to standard at the Council owned Westbridge Depot, at the price provided for this work by the Preferred Bidder of £450,038, the sum to be included for in the Capital programme for 2018-19.

2.5       Cabinet noted the impact on the revenue budget of the contract was £11.128m for 2018/19 which had been factored into the budget to be approved by Council in February 2018.

Councillor Meredith, as the Chair of the Re-provision of the Environmental Services Contract Scrutiny Working Group, commented that the concluding report submitted by the Group had been passed unanimously and noted that due diligence had been in place. He stated that he had been critical of the current contract and commented that his ward had been affected greatly by the mess and detritus that had not been dealt with by the contractors. He thanked the Cabinet Member for his support and stated that he hoped that residents would see a marked improvement once the new contract was in place.

In response, Councillor Hallam thanked Councillor Meredith for the work of the panel and for undertaking an extensive scrutiny process of the contract. He commented that he would appreciate a continuation of involvement from the panel members during the transition period. 

Councillor Stone commented that she had serious concerns especially since the bankruptcy of Carillion had been announced and stated that she would like to see the service brought back in house to mitigate risk. She commented that there was a need for the Council to be entrepreneurial in their approach and noted that many other local authorities were bringing services back in house after having contract them out and questioned why further exploration of a joint contract with Kettering and Corby Councils had not been fully considered and spoke of preference that the company be British.

In response, Councillor Hallam stated that the decision to be made was about the award of contract and that the decision to not bring the contract back in house had been made at the very beginning of the process. He further reported that not only were the new contractors entrepreneurial but the innovativeness of the contract would see many new trial features. He further reported that the new contractors would comply with all relevant employment laws.

Councillor Haque congratulated the team on their hard work on the contract but voiced his concerns at the length and cost of the contract. He stated that the contract would compromise the budget for 10 years and noted concerns about outsourcing to private sector companies in light of recent news.

In response, Councillor Hallam commented that the contract length was determined partly by the age of the vehicles and the new contract would offer a lot more flexibility than the previous one.

Councillor Beardsworth commented that she was pleased to hear that due diligence had been carried out and stated that the last contract had not been performance managed well. She questioned whether the contracted staff would be offered some protection as she did not want redundancies.  

In response, Councillor Hallam concurred with Councillor Beardsworth on the performance management of the current contract and noted that the new contract would be diligently managed. He thanked the Liberal Democrats for their input in the process and asked that they continue to contribute during the transitional period.

Councillor Hallam further commented that the new contract demonstrated an excellent example of joined up working and noted that the consultation had been the largest of its kind that the Council had carried out. He reported that the majority of people who had fed in to the consultation had favoured co-mingling and a much better quality of services, of which the new contract would provide.

The Leader thanked the work of the officers, the scrutiny working group and Councillor Hallam as the relevant Cabinet member.

RESOLVED:

2.1       That, subject to confirmation of commitments after the Alcatel standstill period, Bidder B be appointed as the Preferred Bidder and agree to award the Environmental Services Contract for a period of 10 years, at a price of £97,697,867 (not including indexation /inflation), with an option to extend by mutual agreement for up to a further 10 years, subject to satisfactory performance of the contract and Cabinet approval nearer that time.

2.2       That authority be delegated to the Director of Customers and Communities, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment, to do all that would be reasonably required, necessary and appropriate to implement Cabinet’s decision to award the contract to the Preferred Bidder and to achieve successful completion of the environmental services procurement process, including:

·         Agreeing terms and entering into leases, in line with the Preferred Bidder’s property, vehicle, equipment and container proposals

·         Providing final approval and execution of the contract following confirmation of commitments.

2.3       That, in accordance with the advice of the Council’s Chief Finance Officer, expenditure of £11.938m into the capital programme, funded by borrowing with up to £10m of the Minimum Revenue and interest charges being offset by the use of existing reserves for the vehicles, equipment and containers that would be used to provide the new environmental services contract be approved.

2.4       That, in accordance with the advice of the Council’s advisors that the Council would pay for the cost of bringing the facilities up to standard at the Council owned Westbridge Depot, at the price provided for this work by the Preferred Bidder of £450,038, the sum to be included for in the Capital programme for 2018-19 be approved.

2.5       That the impact on the revenue budget of the contract was £11.128m for 2018/19 which had been factored into the budget to be approved by Council in February 2018 be noted.