Wyre borough&#39s in-house team takes over collections

Wyre council had hoped to let a joint six-year waste management contract this year with Blackpool and Fylde councils. But the proposed scheme proved to be too expensive and the partnership has put its plans on hold for a year.

To cover the interim period, Wyre signed its own direct works organisation on a twelve-month contract to cover refuse and recycling collections. The council said the in-house team offered a more cost-effective solution than SITA.

Councillor Russell Forsyth, social environment portfolio holder, said: “We have to seek the best value for our services because we are spending public money. We believe these arrangements will result in a good and cost effective service for the people of Wyre.”

SITA had held the collection contract for the borough since 1995 all 50 of its staff in Wyre have been transferred to the direct works organisation.

The direct works organisation will now service all 50,000 households in the borough with refuse collections and will carry out a trade waste collection. It will also take over a blue bin collection of waste paper to 20,000 households and expanding it by 15,000 households in the coming weeks.

The organisation already holds contracts to collect green waste from households in Wyre and parts of Blackpool.

Fleet

To cover the paper recycling and refuse collection, the council organisation has already taken delivery of twelve refuse collection vehicles from Dennis Eagle.

The Warwick-based vehicle supplier has provided seven open back Phoenix 23s, a XM15 with Beta bin lift and an open back Phoenix 15 for the refuse collection rounds.

For the kerbside paper collections, the council will use a Phoenix 23 with Zoeller bin lift and for the trade waste collections in Wyre, it will use a further two Phoenix 23s with Beta bin lifts.

Dennis Eagle will be replacing four of the fleet with remanufactured vehicles, whilst a further four new vehicles will enter service around July.

Wyre borough council's head of operations, Alan White said: “If it hadn't been for Dennis Eagle's suggesting that the remanufactured option could work, we would definitely not have secured the contract. Both outright purchase of an entire fleet of new vehicles or opting for contract or spot hire would have made this short-term bid uncompetitive.”