The council has appointed Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions to lead the review, which was pledged as part of a deal between the council and trade unions to end industrial action which took place over the winter.
Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions will start work with the city council “shortly”, and the review is set to consist of a number of phases, involving key officers, councillors and citizens.
The work being carried out will include a current state assessment, a best practice review and benchmarking, the identification of any immediate efficiencies or improvements and a future operating model options appraisal.
A report to the council’s cabinet in March explained that the review will examine a number of areas, including ‘previous collective agreements as they stand against corporate policy’ and also ‘best financial model taking into account size, complexities and challenges’.
‘Improvement’
Commenting on the review, Cllr John O’Shea, cabinet member for street scene and parks at Birmingham city council, said: “We’ve made it clear that we need to significantly improve waste services in this city if we are to meet the top priority for citizens – clean streets.
“In order to do this, the review will look at all aspects of our existing service and all possible options for the future. We received some very strong submissions from interested parties for this piece of work, looking at their experience, track record, price, social value commitments and proposed approach to delivering the specification.
“Our selected consultant is strong in all areas and I look forward to receiving their findings for our consideration.”
The council has kept the cost of the review exempt, but an attempt to call the review in was dismissed by Birmingham’s cabinet in April (see letsrecycle.com story).
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