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Agenda item

South London Waste Partnership - Procurement of Waste Collection and Related Environmental Services

Decision:

RESOLVED

That Cabinet,

1. recognises the Administration’s desire, in the context of Merton’s continually decreasing funding from Central Government, to maintain and enhance the borough’s public realm, open spaces and parks; noting the results of the wheeled bin pilot in Lavender Fields ward and the Administration’s desire to introduce wheeled bins to ensure cleaner streets and the need for any solution to be affordable

2. having noted the endorsement from the Joint Waste Committee (7 June 2016) approves the appointment of Veolia ES (UK) Ltd as Preferred Bidder for LOT 1 services including waste collection, street cleaning, commercial waste collection, winter maintenance and vehicle procurement and fleet maintenance in relation to the procurement exercise undertaken by the South London Waste Partnership (SLWP) for Waste Collection and Related Services. This is for a period of 8 years with the option to extend for two further periods of 8 years, a maximum total of 24 years.

3. approves the appointment of The Landscape Group Ltd as Preferred Bidder for LOT 2 services (including Parks, Grounds maintenance, Cemeteries, Verges and Tree maintenance) . This is for a period of 8 years with the option to extend for two further periods of 8 years, a maximum total of 24 years.

4. approves the appointment of Amey LG Ltd. as Reserve Bidder for LOT 1 services and Veolia ES (UK) Ltd as Reserve Bidder for LOT 2 services.

5. agrees to, following fine tuning discussions with the Preferred Bidders and there being no material changes to the proposed solution beyond the scope of the proposed solution set out in this report, delegate authority to the Director of Environment and Regeneration in consultation with Cabinet Members to authorise the London Borough of Croydon to award the contract for both Lots, on behalf of the four boroughs of Sutton, Merton, Kingston and Croydon (the SLWP).

6. agrees to, based on the principles of the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA), delegate authority to the Director of Environment and Regeneration in consultation with appropriate Cabinet Members to agree the IAA and the arrangements relating to the management of the contracts.

7. notes the statutory requirement under section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 requiring the Council to advertise its intention to grant leases of areas of Public Open Space for those depots and staff facilities within parks and open spaces required to facilitate the operation of the contract(s).

8. notes the work in hand to establish fit for purpose Contract Management and Clienting functions and delegates this to the Director of Environment and Regeneration to finalise

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council announced that he would be taking item 6 Reference from Scrutiny on the South London Waste Partnership (procurement of waste collection and related environment services) as part of this item’s discussion.

The Cabinet Member for Street Cleanliness and Parking presented the report which detailed the outcome of the procurement exercise for the preferred bidder and reserve bidder for both Lot 1 (waste collection, street cleaning, winter maintenance, vehicle procurement and fleet maintenance) and the Lot 2 (parks, arboriculture, cemeteries and grass verges and tree maintenance services). In presenting the report Members were reminded that the proposals would lead to 6 days a week waste collection, through the use of wheeled bins across the Borough for the first time and an all year round street cleaning service. Also the proposal sought value for money for the Council whilst seeking an improved service for our residents and an approach that would increase recycling rates across the Borough. The Cabinet Member for Community and Culture also spoke on the report confirming that he supported the proposals in relation to Lot 2. He was excited about how the new contract would work in relation to our parks and especially in continuing to work with the Friends of our Parks to ensure our parks continue to be great places for our residents to visit.

Councillor Abigail Jones, Chair of the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel was invited to present the Panel’s reference, highlighting that at the scrutiny meeting there was not a unanimous view on the process as a whole, with some views being expressed over the financing of the wheeled bins. A number of proposals were put forward to be passed on to Cabinet, but only one carried was as detailed in the reference before the Cabinet, which suggested to Cabinet that further work be carried out over the number of household that would need support with using the wheeled bins and to look at the number of households that won’t be able to have the wheeled bins. The Cabinet Member confirmed he was more than happy to take on board the reference and would ensure that it occurred as part of the fine tuning with our preferred bidder.

Terry Downs (GMB steward in Greenspaces) addressed the meeting on this issue.

In considering the proposals Cabinet made it clear how pleased they were with the proposals as it would improve and modernise services for our residents, they would further look at the results of the pilot in Lavender Ward to see what could be learnt. The Leader commented that he and his Cabinet would be working with officers, our partners and our preferred bidders to ensure there would be some flexibility in start date of the proposals to ensure that the commencement of the new approach met with the needs of our residents.