Cheshire West and Chester to cut collection costs

The council is keen to find savings in its £11 million annual bill for waste management and is letting the contract despite claiming that the existing services are delivering “good levels of recycling and high satisfaction rates”. And, the council is also keen to introduce a “harmonised service” by 2012.

The council targeting savings of at least £1.5 million from the delivery of a single waste management contract and also aims to increase its recycling rate beyond its existing 50% target and also provide “increased customer service”.

According to minutes from a meeting of the Cheshire West and Chester council executive in November 2009, the council is looking to tender a 14-year contract, with an option to be extended for a further seven years.

The council said it wanted to ensure that a contract was in place by January 2012 in the former Vale Royal district council area, because the council's contract there with SITA UK expires in December 2011.

Harmonised

When Cheshire West and Cheshire was formed, the council said it would retain the former district's existing waste and recycling operations but hoped to introduce a harmonised service by 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Under the existing arrangements, the former Vale Royal district council area collections are carried out by SITA UK, the former Chester city council area is catered for by Spanish-owned waste management firm Focsa and the Ellesmere Port and Neston area is covered by an in-house collection service.

The seven-year deal between the former Chester city council and Focsa has an initial breakpoint at the end of March 2012.

Chester city council launched a new recycling service in September 2008, which saw its recycling rate rise to 55% over the summer, although the council expects this to be lower when the full year is taken into account. The new service saw the introduction of a 240 litre blue wheeled bin for dry recyclables with an inner caddy for glass and batteries (see letsrecycle.com story).

The public consultation on changes to the service is being launched on June 17 and will run to July 26 2010.