Wakefield council officers have told councillors to reject pressure from Eric Pickles to revert to weekly waste collections, due to the risk that service changes could breach its long term residual waste contract with Shanks.
A report to the councils cabinet ahead of a meeting next week (June 17) assesses the councils current performance in line with DCLGs Bin Bible, which was published in January to put pressure on local authorities to collect waste on a weekly basis.
Wakefield, which currently operates a fortnightly waste collection system, claims that it can demonstrate high levels of efficiencies and recycling performance and is seeking to exceed these levels through forthcoming service changes.
The council signed a 25-year 750 million PFI contract with Shanks Group in January 2013 which will see Wakefields waste treated at a combined autoclave and anaerobic digestion facility due to be built in South Kirkby (see letsrecycle.com story). Residual waste delivered to the plant will be sorted to separate recyclables from organic waste and to produce a refuse derived fuel for use in SSEs multi fuel plant at Ferrybridge.
In the report which has been presented to councillors, officers warn against any future changes to collection frequency as the contract has been predicated on the council delivering waste in a particular format to Shanks, and failure to do this could result in a breach of the contract.
Compliance
The report states: The treatment facilities have been designed on a daily throughput capacity and an anticipated waste composition in the early years, to ensure the waste can be treated in compliance with the environmental permits and operating periods for each piece of equipment. A key risk to changing when and how waste and recyclables are collected could result in a legal challenge from the contractor.
It is also stated that a move to a weekly collection service would have a financial impact in terms of additional vehicles, staff and resources with an additional 13 trucks needed, which result in a capital expenditure of around 4.03 million.
Instead the council is planning to implement a Three Stream Service which will see the council moving to a fully commingled system for dry recyclables. The council currently collects paper and card in a wheeled bin, while glass, plastics and metals are collected in a green box. Councillors are due to vote on the proposal to collect all of the material in wheeled bins.
Commenting on the proposals councillor Maureen Cummings, Wakefields cabinet member for environment and communities, said: “We are committed to delivering a high quality and value for money bin collection service for residents. These changes will make sure that we can still maintain this fantastic level of service in spite of unprecedented financial pressures from central government.
“We are now in a long term partnership with Shanks to increase recycling and lower the amount of waste sent to landfill by more than the amount required, to ensure that we protect our local environment for future generations to enjoy. The new waste treatment facilities offer us a high level of innovation so that we can continue to deliver this efficient service to residents over the next 25 years.”
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