Rushmoor awards Veolia 4 million contract extension

The waste management company will also be responsible for street cleaning, highway verges and grounds maintenance for the Hampshire council until 2016, after a cabinet meeting in March outlined the cost-saving benefits of extending the existing deal.

Under advice from the council's consultants White Young Green, cabinet minutes noted that “the offer from Veolia was significantly more financially attractive than the council tendering the work on its own” and therefore voted to award Veolia the extension.

Veolia's previous contract with Rushmoor was signed on April 22 2002 for seven years, and was then worth “in the region of” £3.85m, with the new deal being signed for £4.025 million.

The new deal, which commences in April 2009, will see Veolia introduce borough-wide kerbside glass collections and the council stated that this “fitted well with the council's recycling aspirations.”

Pride

Councillor Roland Dibbs, cabinet member of the environment at Rushmoor borough council, said: “We take tremendous pride in Rushmoor and demand high standards for our frontline services, such as refuse and recycling collections, street cleaning and maintenance of our parks and open spaces as we know how important these are to residents.

“Veolia Environmental Services have consistently met those standards and we look forward to developing our relationship with them over the next seven years and new collection methods will help us meet our recycling target,” he added.

Tom Spaul, executive director of Veolia Environmental Services, said: “After a constructive period of consultation with both councils and our operations managers, the re-instatement of these longstanding contracts reflects our vision to develop effective partnerships with councils and deliver continued high quality and value for money services.”

Bins

Last week, Rushmoor also responded to concerns raised in the national media about its decision to replace its existing stock of 240 litre green wheeled bins for residual waste with 240litre wheeled bins – explaining that the move would encourage people to recycle more and reduce their refuse.

The measure, agreed by the council's Cabinet in July, follows an alternate weekly bin collection trial in 2007 which proved successful in increasing recycling in the borough to around 36%, but residents were concerned about storing kitchen waste for up to two weeks and potential problems with flies and smells – leading the council to decide to keep weekly collections but reduce the size of bins.

Councillor Dibbs said: “The vast majority of our residents support recycling and want to do their bit, but there are still those who could do more. Evidence from other councils, and our own trial, shows that reducing rubbish capacity increases recycling rates and, just as important, minimises the amount of waste that goes for disposal.”