The Corporate Director Communities presented a report providing an update on the future direction of the recycling and waste service and seeking Cabinet approval to proceed to tender, for an interim contract for the recycling and waste collection / community recycling centre management contract, for up to a two year duration. Approval was also required to delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Communities to negotiate and finalise acquisition fees for the existing vehicles, plant and equipment utilised in the provision of the current service with Kier Services Limited and to delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Communities to negotiate terms with Kier to change fuel supply for the existing fleet of recycling and waste vehicles and plant to a hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) derived fuel, in the period up to the end of the contract in 2024. The Corporate Director Communities was seeking approval to commence work on the future service provision post 2026, including looking at decarbonisation of the waste fleet and additional material streams for

recycling with the aim of being the best performing waste & recycling Local

Authority in Wales.

The Corporate Director Communities outlined the background to the recycling and waste contract which was awarded to Kier Services Limited in April 2017, due to end on 31st March 2024.  The current recycling & waste service overall performed very well. BCBC were well ahead of the recycling target with a low missed collection rate and a good rate of customer satisfaction. There was a great deal of uncertainty with regards to the methodology and targets for the future recycling and waste service model and it was difficult to see what a future contract should look like. For these reasons Cabinet was strongly recommended to make a decision to put a short-term interim contract into place, of no more than two years, to cover the period from 2024 to 2026. This would allow time for key decisions to be made re collection methodology and time to look at the fleet they wanted to bring forward.

The Corporate Director Communities explained that no public consultation was required at this stage as the contract would provide virtually the same contract as the current one. BCBC had the right to acquire plant and equipment from Kier as this was built into the original contract. They would negotiate to acquire these assets and this would be subject to a further report. Also an interim step was being explored and discussed between

Kier and Council officers, namely the introduction of Hydrogenised Vegetable Oil (HVO) derived fuel vehicles. Kier had undertaken investigations and confirmed that the existing fleet was able to be run using this fuel type.

The Cabinet member for Communities explained that a lot of work had taken place to get to this position. Measures needed to be put in place for the short term and long term and all options remained on the table at this stage. He added that the success of the scheme was primarily down to the residents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5