Serco has operated the council’s waste services since 2012 and does so currently under an eight-year contract worth £3.1m per annum which began in August 2020 (see letsrecycle.com story).
A report which went before Derbyshire Dales’s full council on 27 April, says that, while Serco’s previous deal from 2012 until 2020 was delivered “successfully with excellent recycling rates, regular collections and high customer satisfaction survey results”, the new deal has been plagued by issues.
Serco has “alluded” to losing £700,000 a year from the contract, the report says.
Derbyshire Dales commissioned waste sector specialist Recircle Consulting to produce a qualitative assessment of the options available.
Recircle recommended three models: in-house service delivery, creating a local authority company to run the service, and procuring a new contract.
While the report noted that continuing with Serco represented “the path of least resistance”, councillors voted unanimously on 27 April to spend £30,000 on an external consultant to carry out a quantitative assessment of the ramifications of switching to an in-house model.
Standards
Ashley Watts, Derbyshire Dales’s director of community and environmental services, told the council: “The performance that we’ve had to date on the contract has not met the standards required.
The performance that we’ve had to date on the contract has not met the standards required
– Ashley Watts, director of community and environmental services
“There is work ongoing with Serco to remedy the situation and improve the service to residents.”
He added: “Having spoken to a number of members and residents, there is a feeling that in-house service provision would be a preferred option should we not be able to remedy this situation.
“We are proposing that we focus our efforts on doing a quantitative assessment of the in-house service provision – it is a significant piece of work which will take a period of time for officers to do.”
Mr Watts also said he and the council’s chief executive, Paul Wilson, had been in discussions with neighbouring authorities about shared or partnership arrangements.
Katy Bassett, regional director for Serco Environmental Services, told letsrecycle.com: “We are currently working with Derbyshire Dales council to deliver planned improvements to the service.”
Issues
Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the HGV driver crisis have affected the delivery of vehicles and the ability to staff the contract fully, Derbyshire Dales’s report says.
Council officers have also “experienced difficulty” in accessing relevant contract and performance information, the report says, while Serco has “not implemented or maintained many of their contractual obligations”.
These obligations include the installation of 360-degree cameras on vehicles, “full implementation” a Management Information System, and collecting recycling as part of trade waste collections.
Maintaining a “consistent line of communication” with Serco has proved “challenging”, the report says, due to the “high turnover and absence of management staff”.
The issues mean the council has applied punitive measures and says it has deducted the “maximum amount” available for the first two years of the contract.
Derbyshire Dales
Representing an estimated population of nearly 72,000, Derbyshire Dales district council had a household waste recycling rate of 55.6% in the 2020/21 financial year.
Serco’s contract comprises alternate weekly domestic, garden and recycling waste collections, as well as a separate weekly food waste collection. It also includes a trade waste collection service.
Derbyshire Dales has outsourced its waste collection and recycling services since 1989.
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