Councillors from Epping Forest met senior executives from waste management company Biffa face-to-face on 12 January to discuss the “significant problems” with their contract.
The council says it is talking with other waste contractors and Biffa has agreed to make its MRF, described as the second largest in the UK, available to them while it sorts the issues.
Earlier this month, Epping Forest challenged Biffa to improve services after repeated missed and delayed waste and recycling collections (see letsrecycle.com story).
Biffa said the problems stemmed from reasons including unreliable vehicles, global supply chain issues and the national HGV driver shortage, exacerbated by the recent snow and “other matters beyond our control”.
Chris Whitbread, leader of the Essex-based council, said of the meeting: “We had a full and frank discussion. As councillors, our residents talk to us every day. They have been telling us the situation is not good enough. Whatever the reasons, performance must improve.
“Council staff are in daily contact with Biffa, but it was important for senior councillors and Biffa management to meet face to face.
“We understand each other and Biffa has agreed a range of measures that residents should start to see as service improvements in the next few days and weeks.”
Measures
The other measures agreed to by Biffa include improving communications between its staff and the council’s contact centre to handle customer complaints, Cllr Nigel Avey, Epping Forest’s cabinet portfolio holder, said. “Biffa will provide better live-time information so that when a collection is missed, residents will have a more realistic expectation as to when it will be collected.”
When a collection is missed, residents will have a more realistic expectation as to when it will be collected
– Cllr Nigel Avey, cabinet portfolio holder at Epping Forest district council
Cllr Avey added that the current missed collections would be caught up “in the next couple of cycles”, while the large number of missed collections experienced over Christmas “should not be repeated”.
Reputation
Simon Crook, Biffa’s operations director, apologised and said he wanted to reassure residents that Biffa was doing all it could with the council to improve the situation “as quickly as possible”.
He added: “As one of the UK’s biggest waste management companies, we pride ourselves on our reputation for good customer service.
“Unfortunately, there have been significant problems with the Epping Forest contract, but everyone at Biffa is 100% committed to giving residents the service they deserve.
“We have had a full and frank discussion with Epping Forest district councillors and neither Biffa nor the council want the recent level of service to continue.”
Epping Forest
Representing an estimated population of more than 130,000, Epping Forest district council had a household waste recycling rate of 54% in 2020/21, the latest financial year for which verified data is available.
Biffa first won a 10-year contract worth £50 million to provide waste, recycling and street cleansing services for Epping Forest in 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Last August, the council announced Biffa had experienced an “unprecedented” 32% employee turnover in the 12 months to July 2022 (see letsrecycle.com story).
At the start of January, the council said Biffa’s contract would not be automatically renewed.
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