The move will see Corby’s 10-year contract with Kier come to an end in February 2019, when the partnership with Kettering, which will be the lead authority for the shared service, will begin.
The partnership will see waste, recycling, grounds and cleansing services in the two boroughs delivered jointly for the two authorities.
Kettering’s waste and recycling services are currently in-house and householders have four separate containers for general, garden, paper and commingled recycling. The service covers more than 40,000 households.
Corby borough council, under its contract with Kier, also has four containers but operates a commingled recycling, garden and food waste collection. The borough comprises more than 27,000 households.
No changes to the service are anticipated at present following the merger.
Brendan Coleman, Kettering borough council’s head of environmental care, said: “Merging our services in this way means that we can share resources and ultimately provide better value for money to local residents across both areas.“
‘Proud’
When approached by letsrecycle.com for comment, a Kier spokesperson said: “We’re extremely proud of our work with Corby Council since 2004. Our contract was due to end in December 2018 and to help with a smooth transition we have agreed to continue the service up until 1st February 2019. We will continue to provide a high quality service for residents of Corby during this period.”
Finances
In a recent council meeting of Kettering borough council, it was confirmed that a joint budget of £4.28 million for the arrangement has been agreed by a Project Team with finance officers from both Corby and Kettering.
“This is £355,000 higher than compared to Corby’s original budget,” minutes from the meeting suggest.
It added however that this is less of a rise than other authorities in the Northamptonshire area: “Other contracts that have recently been re-tendered in Northamptonshire have seen an average increase of 33% in contract costs for the delivery of a similar or lesser service specification. If a similar increase were applied to this contract, CBC would have seen an increase of around £1.2m.”
Borrowing
In terms of set up costs, Kettering says it will be borrowing £322,000 in the 2018/19 financial year for a fleet of 33 new vehicles, which will be provided by Specialist Fleet Services.
According to Kettering, this will be partially offset by “a financial benefit to the General Fund” of the council in the 2019/20 financial year, as a result of revenue from the Shared Street Scene Service, estimated to be around £110,000 – which will “contribute to the challenging budget target for 2019/20”.
Joint management
The shared service will have a joint management structure, and we will be merging the teams “to deliver a more effective management and a more efficient service”.
Where possible, the council has said it will aim to align the terms and conditions of the shared workforce to remove any inequalities in pay and rationale.
A council report also stated that “there are no customer impacts” at the moment and they are in talks with unions with regards to the transfer of staff from both Kier and Corby.
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