Verdant renews waste services contract with Arun district

The company had been working with the council to run services including refuse and recycling collections on an interim basis after Onyx Environmental pulled out of the contract last year. The seven-year contract has an option of an extension of five years after 2012.

The new term will begin in February 2005, with Verdant providing refuse collection, recycling, street cleansing and public convenience maintenance services. The company said it would be expanding recycling in the district, which includes the towns Arundel, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis.

A new wheeled bin kerbside collection scheme for dry recyclables could be on the cards for the new service, the company said, as well as a green waste service.

Verdant believes its experience with the high-recycling Leicestershire borough of Melton will help it to improve the recycling service in Arun. Melton achieved the third highest recycling rate for household waste in England during 2002/03.

Achievements
According to Simon Miles, Verdant Group managing director, the contract extension at Arun was won “largely because of Verdant’s quality approach and real achievements” when managing the short term contract over the past 19 months.

He declared: “Arun District Council evaluated Verdant on three main criteria – technical ability and service delivery, price and legal compliance, in that order. Our service delivery over the past 19 months has been excellent, and Arun has fully justified confidence in our ability to maintain and enhance performance in the future.”

Mr Miles said the contract award was “good news” for Arun residents, for the council, “and ultimately for the local environment”. The company said it has been working with the council to reduce the number of missed collections and boost recycling rates. The council recycled about 13% of its household waste in 2002/03.

Kevin Basford, head of environmental amenities at Arun district council, said: “Verdant’s past performance has been excellent, and combined with their proposals for achieving high standards of refuse collection, cleansing and recycling, convinced us that Verdant should be our contractor of choice.”