Canterbury renews collection contract with Serco

The award of the contract follows a competitive tender process which saw the services company beating off competition from rival bidders Enterprise and Veolia Environmental Services.

A 10-day standstill period in which the unsuccessful companies had the opportunity to challenge the decision has passed, meaning Serco was confirmed as the winning bidder yesterday (October 30).

Serco currently holds the contract to provide environmental services in Canterbury, which ends on March 31 2013. At present this also includes grounds maintenance, public toilets, building maintenance and office cleaning. However, the council has decided to split these into four smaller contracts from April 2013 so will be awarded separately.

Glass

Under the new contract, Serco will be introducing a new waste collection system which will include fortnightly doorstep collection of glass for the first time and a return to weekly collections of food waste. This is in line with the common waste collection service being introduced across Kent, which also features fortnightly residual and garden waste collections.

Detailed work will now take place with Serco on the implementation of the project in areas such as the size and type of wheelie bins or boxes that residents will be provided with, roll out dates and a comprehensive publicity campaign.

A spokesman for the council said: “We will be sitting down from the people from Serco and getting down to the nitty gritty.”

The councils head of neighbourhood services, Larissa Laing, said: “All three companies put in very competent bids and we would like to thank the two unsuccessful companies for their interest in the waste and street cleaning contract.

“This is one of our most high profile contracts providing essential services to our residents. The tender process has allowed us to create a high quality service while achieving excellent value for money for taxpayers. We now have a lot of work to do on getting the new waste collection system ready. There are plenty of benefits to residents, such as doorstep collection of glass and weekly collections of food waste, and we will be working hard in the coming months to make sure it’s a success.”