A report by the Interim Director of Technical Services informed that the Environmental Streetscene Services Contract was the delivery mechanism for executing the Council’s statutory obligations to collect household waste and maintain the cleanliness of the borough’s highways and associated open spaces.

The Interim Director reported that the current contract with Biffa had commenced in August 2006 and was worth approx £12.5M per annum.  It was a 14-year contract, currently running in its sixth year and had a ‘break clause’ at seven years (August 2013).

The Interim Director’s report responded to the recommendations of the Cabinet meeting held on 21 June 2012 (Minute No. 28 refers) and in doing so provided details around the financial benefits and viability of the preferred break clause offer as well as the risks and service considerations associated with delaying the Break Clause decision for a further 3.5 years and accepting the associated savings package proposed by Biffa.  Fundamentally, the report offered Members an opportunity to examine risks and benefits of accepting the break clause offer in favour of re-tendering, to ensure that the decision made around the future of the Environmental Streetscene Contract gave due regard for achieving value for money.

A number of documents appended to the report contained sensitive commercial information related to the management accounts of Biffa PLC. In order to protect the commercial competitiveness of Biffa’s position in the waste management market and to ensure the Council and Biffa were not disadvantaged in future procurement opportunities, this information had been classified as Exempt Information from public scrutiny, as set out in paragraph 3, Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and would be considered in Part 2 of the meeting once the press and public had been excluded (Minute No. 65 refers). 

RESOLVED: That the Cabinet

(1)  approves the delay of the ‘break clause’ decision until April 2016 and removes the age restriction of the fleet used to service the current Environmental Streetscene Services Contract, thereby continuing the contract with Biffa until at least March 2017;

(2)   approves the removal of all co-mingled bring sites (subject to consultation and completion of the associated EIA) by no later than August 2013;

(3)  requests a review of the “Exclusion Round” with a view to adding all properties on this service to the Alternate Weekly Collection Service (subject to consultation and completion of the associated EIA) by no later than August 2013;

(4)  requests officers to provide a further report for its consideration, detailing the capital costs required to facilitate the removal of the Exclusion Round, as a result of the consultation exercise (not to exceed £80k);

(5)  notes the revenue savings that have been identified from implementing the preferred option totalling £1.2m and agrees that adjustments to the waste provisions be made to reflect the part year effect of savings in 2013/14 and the full-year affect thereafter; and

(6)  instructs the Director of Technical Services to present a further report to this Cabinet no later than  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59