Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Environment and Resident Experience.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Resident Services and Tackling Inequality.

The Cabinet Member for Resident Services and Tackling Inequality introduced the report which sought approval for the extension of the current waste and cleansing contract to allow for the Council to explore how services should be provided in the future.

In response to questions from Councillor da Costa, the following was noted:

-               The education and outreach service had been cut from the contract, which made it difficult to help with educating residents on how to recycle and change behaviours.  This made it hard for Veolia to meet recycling targets.  This resource had now been brought in-house, and work was underway to raise awareness and education in regards to recycling.

RESOLVED to

1.            Agree to exercise the Council’s option to extend the current contract for a value of £21.6m per annum, based on 2023/24 costs and subject to indexation and variations with Veolia, on the same terms, by 2 years through to 16 April 2027, in accordance with CSO 10.02.1 b) (Cabinet to approve contract extensions above £500,000), and

2.            Agree to vary the contract with Veolia to in-source the Education, Communications and Outreach service on 17 April 2024 and undertake the necessary TUPE process for the 3 staff members.

Reasons for decision - Veolia Extension

With the current contract expiring in April 2025, the Council has 18 months to agree how the services will be delivered and, if required, undertake the relevant extension, re-tendering or in-sourcing exercise.

The commissioning programme is currently underway to determine how waste and recycling collections and street cleansing services are delivered from April 2025.

Eunomia Research and Consulting Ltd and Plan B Management Solutions have provided the Council with specialist advice, support, and modelling to inform the recommendations across three key areas, which will impact on the cost and deliverability of services in the coming years:

·           Service delivery approach (whether the services are in-sourced, re-tendered, or Veolia contract extended)

·           Waste collection and street cleansing methodologies (the approach and service design required to improve quality and performance against targets)

·           Fleet strategy (the approach, costs, and feasibility to support the implementation of Zero Emission (ZE) vehicles)

The support provided across each of these areas has resulted in a detailed review of the associated costs, benefits, and risks across a range of options. Each of the three key areas has implications for each other, and as such, a holistic review is required to fully understand the implications for the Council.

Between December 2022 and February 2023 engagement with residents, business and other stakeholders was undertaken as part of the Haringey Deal, to understand views and aspirations of services provided within the current contract. The engagement received over 8,000 responses, which will be incorporated into the future options and recommendations.

The Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental (PESTLE) analysis (Appendix 1) has shown that there are several significant areas which are currently impacting, or are likely to have a future impact, on the services in the coming years. Due to these factors the commissioning programme is unable  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9