South Oxfordshire District Council terminated SITA's 1.7 million a year six-year refuse collection and recycling contract after only two years following a breakdown in talks over missed collections.
Grundon started the collection on a temporary basis two weeks ago and will formally take over the 2.6 million a year contract on December 10. The council hopes that by appointing Grundon to manage its waste and recycling contract it will be able to put its collection problems behind it.
The council has taken the opportunity to look at how it can improve the recycling service which it hopes will meet householders’ desires for increasing recycling and enable it to hit the government targets of 33% recycling by 2003/4.
Shirley Brown, cabinet member with executive responsibility for the waste management services, said: “S Grundon (Services) Ltd, has been appointed to undertake the refuse and recycling collections in South Oxfordshire. We are very grateful to the residents of the district for their patience over the past few months and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
Grundon will now buy a new fleet of vehicles and will employ additional staff. The company will also introduce a plastics collection to the kerbside scheme which will see residents able to place plastics in their existing green recycling box.
Grundon has also recently bought Grasshopper 2000, a Gloucestershire landfill site and skip hire business, which was formally known as Gloucestershire Sand & Gravel.
Neil Grundon, development director of Grundon, said: “We are really pleased to have secured our first collection contract and are looking forward to working with the council. We are extremely pleased to further our position in both Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.”
South Oxfordshire District Council has now entered legal proceedings and is seeking compensation from SITA. It is hoping to recover some of the costs of the 750,000 increase in the annual cost of the service, the re-tendering costs as well as the effect of a 5% drop in its recycling rate to 12%. SITA said that the low unemployment rate in the county led to difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, which has affected the service it could provide.
Register for free to comment