Spanish-owned Urbaser, which has its UK division based in Cheltenham, has today (20 November) been announced as the winner of a 7-year joint contract to provide waste collection and street cleansing services for North Hertfordshire (NHDC) and East Herts district councils (EHDC).
The contract is estimated to be worth £65 million to Urbaser over the seven year period and both councils are expecting to see savings from the new contract.
Veolia currently undertakes the work for both local authorities in a county where it had been seeking to strengthen its presence – it has the treatment contract for Hertfordshire county council.
However, Urbaser has now added significantly to its contract portfolio, with the North and East Herts work which has been let as a joint contract for the first time, representing its largest single municipal collection contract in the UK.
The contract was tendered in two lots with Urbaser clinching lot one, the collection and street work and also securing Lot 2 for sorting recyclables. [amended: 21 November] Urbaser will provide services for 280,000 residents including the towns of Letchworth, Bishop’s Stortford and Hertford.
As part of the collection element of the contract Urbaser will be responsible for refuse and recycling collections plus garden waste, clinical waste, bulky waste and food waste plus street cleansing duties.
Partnership
North Hertfordshire has taken the lead role in the joint venture and Cllr Michael Weeks, NHDC’s executive member responsible for waste and recycling said: “We are pleased with the outcome of our procurement process. We are committed to providing residents with quality services and good value for their council tax, and look forward to working in partnership with Urbaser to achieve just that.”
Cllr Weeks added: “Like many Councils, we have a reduced budget from central Government and we need to make savings of £4.2 million pounds annually by 2021/22. This measure will go a long way towards helping us achieve this”.
Graham McAndrew, executive member for the environment at East Herts, said: “We’re pleased with the outcome of our joint procurement process that will continue to provide our residents with quality services and good value for their council tax. Urbaser’s vehicles will all be fitted with Euro 6 engines and drivers’ will be trained to monitor fuel use, speed and to minimise unnecessary accelerating and breaking, which is great news for the environment too.”
Javier Peiro, managing director, Urbaser Ltd said: “We are incredibly proud to be selected as a long-term partner for both East Herts and North Herts District Councils. We are excited by this opportunity to provide important services to residents and service users across Hertfordshire. Urbaser is committed to providing our clients with value for money and excellent service levels. We look forward to working with both councils.”
Battery collection
Urbaser said that it would be delivering a range of service improvements for local residents including “the collection of batteries in North Herts alongside other kerbside recycling services. The introduction of an in-cab waste management system will transform collection services with vehicle-mounted hand-held PC’s that integrate with back office systems enabling front line staff to view the latest service information, as well as message, report and log events. The plan is to allow residents to access services more readily online to enhance their customer experience.”
The main depot for the contractor is at Buntingford and this will also be the location for the new shared client team that is to be fully operational prior to the contract commencing. There will be satellite depot(s) due the large geographical size of both authorities.
Cost increase
The authorities have noted that the costs of the contract will increase in later years with growth in number of households that require waste collection together with inflationary increases to the annual contract price.
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