Councils eye savings with joint caddy contract

Five councils in London and the South East are procuring a joint contract for food waste caddies and liners after receiving money from the DCLGs weekly collection fund.

More councils had expressed an interest in taking part but failed to align their purchasing timetables with that of the contract.

Two mini-competitions were launched through the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) framework in April 2013 for the supply of food waste caddies and liners to the five councils. There are 10 suppliers on the framework (see below) who have the opportunity to tender for the contract which is expected to be awarded shortly.

The London boroughs of Ealing, Enfield and Merton as well as Colchester borough council in Essex and Medway borough council in Kent are taking part in the joint procurement which is being co-ordinated by the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB). This is the first time LWaRB have offered councils outside of London the opportunity to get involved in joint procurements.

Details of the procurement were revealed in a report presented to LWaRBlast Thursday(May 9). The report by councillor Clyde Loakes gave an update. It said: Tenders have been received back by ESPO and, providing boroughs procure the equipment requested, anticipated savings will be approximately 15-30% (dependant on specification).

The project forms part of a national procurement strategy which is being co-ordinated by the Local Government Association with support from LWaRB. It comes after 20 London boroughs were awarded in excess of 30 million from the governments weekly collection support scheme, with at least half of this anticipated to be spent on equipment.

The companies on the ESPO framework for refuse and recycling products, who are able to tender for the contract, are: Coral; Mattiussi UK; Peter Ridley; Recycle Together; Sphere Professional; Spider UK; Straight; Egbert H Taylor; UK Container Maintenance; and Weir & Carmichael.

Easy savings

According tothe LWaRBreport, joint procurement should deliver quick and easy savings however take up by councils is low and further work will be undertaken to find out why. Of the seven London councils which expressed an interest at the beginning of the process, only three are participating.

It said: The Efficiencies Committee thought that this should be an area for delivering quick and easy savings for boroughs, but needs senior or chief officer backing. The take-up by boroughs of the joint procurements offered has been low… It appears that boroughs struggle to align their purchasing timetables with LWARB joint procurements, even when flagged up in advance. Officers will be working to determine why up-take is so low, how we can improve it, and to work with the Efficiencies Committee to articulate the opportunities to senior and chief officers.

Consortium

The report also noted that LWaRB has begun exploring the potential for consortium contracts for other key recyclable materials and has started to consult with local authorities about potential partnerships or contracts for materials such as commingled recyclables.

The move comes after the award of a four year contract to textile recycler LM Barry for the collection of textiles from bring banks in seven London boroughs (see letsrecycle.com story).