In September, the then Conservative-led authority agreed to procure the collection service by 2017 alongside neighbouring Malvern Hills and Wychavon councils.
Worcester and Malvern Hills councils currently carry out their collection rounds in-house, while Wychavon is contracted to Spanish-owned FCC Environment. Collectively, the councils had joined the procurement plan in a bid to save around £1.5 million a year (see letsrecycle.com story).
The procurement was expected to take place later this year, with the successful bidder to take charge of collections across the boroughs from September 2017 following the expiry of Wychavon’s FCC contract.
But, following Labour’s victory at the polls earlier this month, which saw the Conservatives lose control of Worcester after losing two seats, the city council has changed its stance on the outsourcing proposal.
The Conservatives, who had favoured offering a contract to a private sector operator, remain the largest party in the city, but were required to win four of the 12 wards contested in order to retain majority control.
Pledge
Labour’s new council leader, Adrian Gregson, has pledged not to pursue privatisation of collection and street cleaning services – pending a formal decision to be taken by the cabinet on 14 June.
He said: “Recent consultation has demonstrated just how much local residents value our Cleaner and Greener services.
“I have made a clear manifesto commitment not to pursue the privatisation of these services, and council officers have therefore now been asked not to carry out any further procurement work to this end.”
Over 100 members of staff are currently employed by Worcester city council’s ‘Cleaner and Greener’ service. If the authority fails to outsource collections, it will be expected to find a £400,000 saving currently attributed to outsourcing in the budget.
The council claims that this can be delivered by reviewing current working practices and identifying ways of making the service more efficient – although has yet to offer specific details of how this will affect services.
‘Disappointed’
Malvern Hills and Wychavon have confirmed that they will continue with the procurement of the new contract.
Councillor Phil Grove, leader at Malvern Hills district council, and councillor Linda Robinson, leader at Wychavon, in a joint statement said: “We are of course disappointed that Worcester City is dropping out of the joint procurement for waste and recycling.
“We respect and understand the reasons for doing this however, the intention is to continue the procurement for Malvern and Wychavon.”
Register for free to comment