Bristol city councilformally awardedMay Gurney a waste and recycling contract yesterday (July20) worth about 14m a year.
The company will be responsible for Bristols waste collection, street cleansing and winter maintenance for the next seven years with an option to extend by a further seven years.
The contract, whichstarts on November 1 2011, means that current contract holder SITA UK is losing a significant workload in an area which has traditionally been seen as one of its heartland territories. And, the council said the May Gurney deal will save Bristol 2.5m compared to the SITA UK contract, as measured in Bristols medium term financial plan for 2012/2013.
Final stage
Three firms – May Gurney, SITA UK and Veolia Environmental Services – competed at the final stage for the work. It is thought that the May Gurney tender was not necessarily the cheapest in financial terms. SERCO and Enterprise had also been earlier contenders.
SITA UK had under its contract with Bristol originally used ECT Recycling as its recycling sub-contractor. ECT was bought by May Gurney in 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story). When SITA UK secured a contract extension in Bristol, until October 31 this year, it decided to discontinue working with ECT.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Bristol Cabinet member for strategic waste, Cllr Gary Hopkins said he was pleased with the award to May Gurney but could not comment on the tender value positioning, although he emphasised that the award “will bring a quality service”.
Competitive dialogue
Originally the tender was to have gone to the lowest bidder but a switch to the competitive dialogue process during the tender process which delayed a result by about 12 weeks meant that a scoring system was used for various aspects of the bid.
Cllr Hopkins said: “The contract will help us to deliver a new approach to the way we deal with waste, by giving the contractor the responsibility to find ways to reduce our waste and increase recycling rates and financially incentivising them to do so. It also gives us more options to develop a seamless system for waste collection and disposal.”
Bristol city council officers won praise from the Cabinet member for their work in assessing the tender. He said: “I am very pleased. Our officers have done a very thorough job. We have got what we wanted at a good price through competitive dialogue which is a way to achieve certainty on how it is delivered.”
The contract will see kerbside sorting of recyclables. Cllr Hopins explained: “We didnt want commingled recycling but we didnt rule it out. But, we dont think it is as efficient and it doesnt bend so well to local circumstances.”
Green bin
The deal will see residents issued with an additional green bin for recylables plastics and Tetrapaks and cardboard will also be collected for recycling rather than composting. Sorting will be in a specially designed May Gurney vehicle which will operate on a slower one-pass basis.
With the contract starting in November, allowing relatively little time for May Gurney to prepare, a contingency plan has been put in place in case of teething problems. Bristol city council has noted: “Contingency arrangements have been put in place with the incumbent supplier in case this date cannot be achieved. Clearly, the reduced contract costs will not kick in until the new contract starts.”
Nicola Peake, managing director of the environmental services division of May Gurney, told letsrecycle.com, that the company was very pleased with the award. “We are absolutely delighted. Bristol has been recycling for a long time and has the potential for doing a lot more. With our ECT roots and contracts in Bath and North East Somerset, and Somerset we now have a real regional presence.”
Regional
Ms Peake added that the companys regional presence had given “Bristol some comfort.”
She explained that from November 1 the service would be provided much in the same way as it is at present. Starting from January 30 2012 the new service would be rolled out over four phases. “We will be doing this as quickly as we can to achieve efficiencies.”
Explaining the collection system, Ms Peake said: “There will be a kerbside sort of recyclables and we are handing out an extra 55 litre green box for the plastics and Tetrapaks. The second key element is that we will be collecteding food waste separately.”
Asked whether the collection vehicle could fill up quickly, she replied: “That is the case for careful planning.”
Success
The success of May Gurney in Bristol marks a significant step forward for the company which had traditionally been moreinvolved inhighways and services.
Less than three years ago, after it acquired the Ealing-based waste and recycling division of ECTalong with its contracts in September 2008, some councillors in Ealing (which had ECT as its waste contractor) were questioning May Gurneys “relatively limited experience with refuse and recycling”. At the time May Gurney responded that they would be delivering “the best possible service by taking time to develop its staff and will be providing investment in these services that ECT wasnt able to.”
Ms Peake also commented yeserday on the Ealing contract for which the company had not secured an extension – the tender for a new waste and recycling contract in Ealing was recently won by Enterprise. She said: “You always aim to retain your contract and May Gurney and ECT are clearly disappointed.”
Waste treatment
Two separate waste treatment contracts deal with Bristol’s household waste. From August 2011,about two-thirds of the residual waste will go to New Earth Solutions new MBT plant which has just been built in Avonmouth, as part of the West of England Waste Partnership Phase II contract. The remaining residual waste will go to SITA UK in a 15 million five-year contract awarded in April this year. Initially this will be sent to landfill but SITA is planning a new waste treatment facility to be built in early 2013.
- Stephen Sears director of policy and strategy, local government services for May Gurney – has recently left May Gurney. Mr Sears told letsrecycle.com that he will be looking for new opportunities in “enterprises which are socially or environmentally worthwhile”.
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