Agenda item

(Contracts and Commissioning – Cllr. N Avey) To agree to go to market and run a full procurement process and allocate funding for environmental consultants to lead on the procurement (C-018-2022/23).

(1)        The Cabinet agreed to go to market and run a full procurement process for the Waste / Street Cleansing Contract which expires in November 2024; and

(2)        The Cabinet agreed to allocate £120,000 for specialist Environmental Consultants to lead on the procurement and legal costs.

The Contracts and Commissioning Portfolio Holder introduced the report. The Council was currently in contract with Biffa Municipal Ltd. for the delivery of waste, street cleansing and processing of dry recycling services at an annual cost of £6.6m, with income received from the sale of the dry recycling currently in the region of £450,000, however this varies year on year with fluctuations in the market. The Contract was due to expire in November 2024 after an initial period of ten years and had the option to extend by (up to) a further ten years, by mutual agreement.

Ricardo Energy & Environment (Ricardo) was commissioned by the Council to conduct a high-level review of their current waste contract in August 2020, based on this review it was recommended that members agree in principle to extend the waste contract with Biffa. Since this recommendation Biffa’s performance and service delivery has deteriorated leading to ongoing missed collections and service delivery issues. This has led to district wide disruption to the collection of residents’ waste and recycling.

Contract extension discussions with Biffa have been protracted and Biffa were still yet to present finalised extension options with full detailed costings. Biffa had indicated that any extension was likely to cost Epping Forest District Council significantly more than the current contract price and reluctant to specify a specific figure that they could guarantee would be accurate in November 2024. The agreement to extend the Contract in principle does not legally bind the Council and this report considering Biffa’s current performance and costs of extending the contract recommends that approval is given to enable a full procurement exercise to take place to demonstrate value for money.

Councillor Philip said that it made sense to spend money on consultants at this stage as it could cost more if not done.

Councillor Patel agreed but asked for assurance that we did not get more bins and kept the bags. He was told that this would depend on costs and what the waste company wanted to do. Also, the Government would be issuing guidance on this. Councillor Philip noted that the recycling bags cost a lot of money  on an ongoing basis each year and not everyone used them for what they were intended.

Councillor Brookes thanked officers for their hard work in chasing things up when they went wrong and asked why we had not gone ahead with getting our own depot.

Councillor C Whitbread endorsed her thanks to the officers who have been first class in handling these issues.

Councillor Avey agreed that officers had worked hard. He went on to say that a depot had now become an issue and they would continue to investigate this.

Decision:

(1)        The Cabinet agreed to go to market and run a full procurement process for the Waste / Street Cleansing Contract which expires in November 2024; and

(2)        The Cabinet agreed to allocate £120,000 for specialist Environmental Consultants to lead on the procurement and legal costs.

Reasons for Proposed Decision:

This decision is based upon Biffa’s assessment of the additional costs they require to extend the contract which have increased considerably since discussion of the waste contract extension began. There have been issues with Biffa’s current performance which has led to ongoing missed collections for over six months. This has caused widespread disruption and complaints throughout the district. A procurement exercise is the only way to demonstrate value for money.

Other Options for Action:

Extend the contract with Biffa and pay the additional costs they are requesting. However, this will not demonstrate value for money and Epping Forest will have little control over the contract.

Bring the service in-house, although without a depot this would not be feasible. Epping Forest District Council would also have to fully fund, or contract hire an entire new fleet of vehicles and pay for ongoing maintenance costs. Epping Forest District Council would also be liable for TUPE costs, recruitment, health and safety, legal, annual leave, and sickness absence. Costs to bring in house would be considerably more than the current contract price.