To receive verbal reports from Portfolio Holders on current issues concerning their Portfolios, which are not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
Minutes:
Environment
The Environment Portfolio Holder made the following statement concerning the waste collection service operated in the District by Biffa Municipal Limited:
“I’m grateful for this opportunity to update the Cabinet, Members and residents on the latest situation with the waste, recycling and street cleansing services, delivered by our contractor, Biffa.
I’d like to begin by making it clear that I consider Biffa’s failure to deliver a universally acceptable service, of the standard we require and our residents expect, to be extremely serious. I share the very real anger and frustration of all those who Biffa have let down, and especially those who have suffered repeated missed collections. I want to reiterate my sincere apologies to all those affected, and assure them that I and the Council’s Officers are doing all in our power to compel Biffa to urgently resolve these problems. My statement this evening is not, therefore, a defence of this situation. Rather, it is an account of what has happened and what is being done to correct it.
I’d like to briefly remind the Cabinet of the procurement exercise that led to the appointment of Biffa.
The previous waste management contract expired in November last year. In March 2013 we began the procurement process by means of Competitive Dialogue, with initially eight bidders, which was reduced to 4 by the time we reached the final stage. In the early stages of the exercise the tender assessment criteria was based 60% on price and 40% on quality, but at the final stage this was changed to 50% for both price and quality, to reflect and emphasise this Council’s focus on quality. The 50% awarded for quality was subdivided into 40% for a technical assessment by Officers and 10% for a Member interview panel.
The procurement process was led by a project team that consisted of Officers from this Council and representatives from Essex County Council and the Council’s specialist consultants, WYG Environmental Limited. Key elements of the assessment process included considering company structure; company finances and insurances; the ability to deliver the services being tendered; health and safety; equalities, and business continuity.
At the Final Tender stage the Council asked the 4 remaining contractors to bid on 2 service levels – a Monday to Friday service and a Tuesday to Friday service – and agreed that the lowest priced submission for each of these would be considered for assessment. The highest scoring tender bid was from Biffa and that was based on a 4 day collection service – something they deliver in authorities elsewhere in the country. Biffa’s bid was assessed by Technical Officers and the Council’s expert consultants, WYG, who confirmed that the level of resources Biffa had allocated for the new service were sufficient and that there was no operational reason why a 4 day service would not be feasible.
The decision to award the 10 year contract to Biffa was made by Cabinet on 19 May 2014. There followed a mobilisation period to ensure a smooth transition from the previous contractor and this was completed on 4 November last year, when Biffa assumed responsibility for the service.
In their tender bid, Biffa proposed that the 4 day service commence in March of this year but, mindful that such a major service change would require considerable preparation, I instructed that this be put back to at least May. Accordingly, the new service commenced on 12 May. Biffa had, therefore, operated the service successfully for 6 months prior to the introduction of their new fleet, new technology, and the 4 day collection schedule.
Unfortunately, as is now widely recognised, a number of problems have beset the service from 12 May, not all of which are directly linked to the introduction of the 4 day service.
These include:
· IT failures affecting the in-cab technology that contains the new collection rounds and the supply of live information back to Biffa management and the Council;
· issues with the compactors on some of the new freighters not operating whilst the vehicles were in motion;
· problems with safety sensors on the bin lifts;
· faults with the on-board weighing equipment, that prevented the freighters from accepting the full pay load; and
· the need for the work force to familiarise themselves with new rounds and adapt to longer working days.
For many residents, the switch to a 4 day service also necessitated a change in the day, and time of day, of their collection. For some, notably those in Chigwell, Debden and Waltham Abbey, it also resulted in a change in the collection week of their recycling and black bin. A letter was sent to every household in the District detailing these changes, but a number of residents remained unclear as to the new arrangements and I accept that this communication could have, and should have, been clearer and measures put in place to mitigate the impact of the week change. I have instructed Officers to issue a reminder to residents of their collection day, mindful that the numerous catch-up collections Biffa have had to undertake has caused many people additional confusion. Further publicity will be distributed once the collection service is stabilised.
Of course, not all the services that Biffa provides have been affected. The vast majority of collections are completed successfully, and street cleansing services have continued with little or no disruption, but a significant number of residents, located across the District, have endured some, sometimes severe, disruption and inconvenience. It is estimated that the number of missed collections over the initial 4 week period was around 15,000, out of a total of 432,000. To date, this has generated around 9,000 phone calls and 3,000 emails to the Council’s Customer Contact Centre.
As an outsourced service the ability of the Council to directly influence its delivery is inevitably limited but, from the moment these problems were identified, the Council’s Officers and Staff have been working tirelessly to help Biffa address them, and to minimise the impact on residents. They have worked long hours, and in many cases over weekends, in often difficult circumstances. I would like to thank each of them for all they continue to do on behalf of our residents. If effort alone were sufficient to solve the problems Biffa have encountered, they would have been resolved a long time ago.
Biffa themselves have committed significant additional resources to dealing with the problems they have encountered, bringing in extra staff and vehicles and undertaking catch-up collections on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. However, the problems are not yet resolved, and collections are still being missed, so, together with the Leader, Chief Executive and the Director of Neighbourhoods, I continue to put pressure on Biffa at all levels of the company. Meetings are taking place with the Managing Director of Biffa Municipal, the Director Commercial, the Director Operations, the Regional Manager, the Business Manager, the Project Mobilisation Manager, the Process, Quality and Information Manager, and the Senior Business Manager, amongst others. The next of these is tomorrow morning, after which I will be able to update Members again.
At the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on Tuesday of this week I asked that they undertake a thorough review of the implementation of the 4 day collection service, which I’m grateful to them for agreeing to do. It’s very important that the causes of the problems we’ve faced are both identified and understood, and that lessons are learnt for the future. In the meantime, I can assure the Cabinet that my priority, and that of all those involved, is to bring a swift resolution to this situation.”
A local Member for Chigwell Village reminded the Cabinet of the approach taken by a previous Portfolio Holder for Environment, who used a dedicated mobile phone to take calls from the public concerning refuse collections. There had been problems over the communication with residents; the letter that was sent out was confusing. The Member had particular concerns with the four-day collection service, especially that crews were now expected to collect 25% more refuse per day in the new service, and therefore needed an extra two hours per day to cope with the workload. A longer working day for the crews would also lead to more delays through getting held up in the afternoon school runs around the District. The Member had discussed the matter with a crew member in her street, who had stated that there was not enough time allocated to finish the new round, the workload for the crews had tripled under the new system, and that it was his opinion that the new service would never be stabilised. The Member had considerable concern about the effect of the missed collections on residents, and had been inundated with emails about the service from disgruntled residents. It was also highlighted that one of the drivers for the new service had been the desire to avoid catch-up services after a bank holiday, but only four of the eight annual bank holidays fell on a Monday each year. The Member opined that the new service would not work and that the number of missed collections endured by residents was not acceptable.
The Environment Portfolio Holder agreed that there were lessons to be learnt from the way that the Council had communicated with residents, although the Council had used a number of different channels to advertise the new service. Biffa had modelled the new 4-day collection service and the Council’s consultants, WYG Environmental Limited, had agreed that the new service was deliverable. The routes would remain under review to deal with issues as they arose, and a 4-day collection service did work in other parts of the country. It was emphasised that there had been other drivers for the new service, and not just the need to avoid bank holiday catch-up services.
The Assistant Director of Neighbourhoods (Technical Services) added that Colchester Borough Council operated a four-day collection service, and a further three Essex District Councils were also considering it. The problems with the new fleet of freighters had not helped the situation, and had led to a snowballing effect of the problems being experienced. However, the modelling performed during the competitive dialogue process had indicated that a four-day collection service was achievable and this had been borne out by the analysis performed by the Council’s consultants.
The local Member for Chigwell Village countered that the current routes were clearly not working, and that Chigwell was a particularly difficult area to collect from. The Member wanted to know if Biffa Municipal had surveyed the Epping Forest District properly before offering their four-day collection service as an option to the Council. The Member also noted that the parent company, Biffa Limited, was beginning preparations to obtain a listing for a public stock flotation in 2016 and wondered whether this had had any effect upon their bid to win the contract for Epping Forest.
The Portfolio Holder stated that it would be sensible to review the current routes and improve them if necessary. It was acknowledged that residents would see freighters moving throughout the District without stopping to make collections, however it could simply be that the freighter was full and needed to travel to the Waste Transfer Station in Harlow to empty its contents. The Council did provide all the bidders for the new contract with evidence of the uniqueness of the District during the competitive dialogue process.
Another local Member for Loughton Broadway added that the inclusion of the green/garden waste collections in the four-day service was an extra burden upon the crews. The Member also expressed his gratitude to the staff for their efforts during this difficult time. The Assistant Director responded that the refuse staff were contracted to work from 7.00am to 4.00pm; the Harlow Waste Transfer Station closed at 4.30pm each evening. Staff welfare and morale was important to the Council, as some of the refuse collectors had been in situ for 25 years. Biffa would make additional resources available for green/garden waste collections during the growing season.
The local Member for Chigwell Village asserted that the evidence indicated a four-day collection service would not work in Epping Forest, and enquired what the cut-off point was for the current schedule, and whether there was a contingency plan. The Portfolio Holder assured Members that Biffa was being questioned as to the viability of the four-day collection service, but there was no cut-off point for the current collection service.
The Leader of the Council apologised to residents affected by problems with the move to a four-day collection service, and assured residents that the Council was working tirelessly to resolve the problems with the new collection schedule. The points raised by the local Member for Chigwell Village would be discussed with Biffa at the next meeting with the Council scheduled for tomorrow morning. It was reiterated that the Council’s first duty was to restore the collections service for all residents across the District.