ACE responds to Stirling council in tender row

After receiving a 31 million grant from the Scottish Executive's Strategic Waste Fund, Stirling council put a new glass collection contract out to tender. The council eventually chose Dalkeith-based MacGlass for the contract rather than ACE, which had previously been working in partnership with the council for 12 years carrying out glass collections as well as other materials.

Following the award of the contract to the private sector, ACE said that Stirling had been attempting to “bully” the local community group out of recycling there, and “challenged the legality of the tender process”. Stirling defended its tender process, stating that using its new private contractors would save taxpayers 20,000 a year (see letsrecycle.com story) in quoting 5.50 per tonne collection costs compared to 26.99 quoted by ACE.

In response to the council's defence, ACE development manager Iain Gulland said: “In terms of the tender price, ACE met with the council and then wrote a letter requesting that the ACE-council partnership was maintained. The figure of 26.99 was quoted as the existing recycling credit rate which ACE receive from the council for glass, cans, textiles and furniture as part of an integrated service. We never quoted for glass alone. More importantly we offered to sit down with the council and review the value of the recycling credit but asked that we maintained the recycling credit payment mechanism which covered the integrated service.”

Mr Gulland went on: “The council says that they will save 20,000 per annum yet they have probably spent over 60,000 on new banks for a two year contract when we offered to supply our own. Also they are now going to collect their own cans from the sites at a cost which we do not know.”

The need for new bins was because existing containers at bring bank sites were too small, the council had said, and that there was a problem with “big public frustration” with full bins.

But Mr Gulland responded: “Stirling's tender did not say anything about the need for bigger banks. There has never been any evidence of the ' big public frustration' about full bins. ACE has located extra banks (at our own cost) at many sites to combat increases in usage.”

Transport
The bigger bins would increase the efficiency of the transportation process in the new glass collection service, the council had said, stating that “at present a vehicle can be running all the way from Alloa to Tyndrum to empty a few 1,100 litre bins”.

But Mr Gulland said: “ACE do not travel all the way to “Tyndrum to empty a few 1100 litre bins”. As well as servicing the 7 public sites on our &#39c;ountry' run we also service over 25 hotels and pubs at the same time on a fortnightly basis which can yield upwards of 8 tonnes per trip.”