Minutes:
The Committee received a presentation from Eve Risbridger, JWCS Project Manager. The presentation included an update on the contractual process, an overview of the decision making structures governing the contract and a summary of the work underway to implement and embed the contract in partners’ work.
The Committee was informed that approval had now been given by all four councils to award the contract to Bidder A (now announced as being Amey). Ismina Harvey had been appointed to the post of Contract Implementation Manager and officers were now working closely with Amey to clarify any contractual matters, agree a comprehensive approach to partnership working and set up a Strategic Partnership Board with responsibility for translating the Joint Waste Strategy into reality before the contract went live on 3 June 2017.
It was noted that Amey had been shortlisted for, and won, a number of awards by nationally recognised organisations including the Clean Britain Awards and the National Recycling Awards. Amey was keen for their staff on the ground to be ambassadors for their organisation and their centralised Customer Service Centre, which Woking and Surrey Heath Councils had opted to make use of, was a strength that enabled it to provide a 24/7 service every day of the year. Amey’s use of in-cab technology to easily and accurately capture real time data on a range of issues including fly tipping, excess waste, missed bin collections and contaminated waste would provide partner authorities with a robust and comprehensive data set that could be used to improve both performance and services.
The Contract partnering Board and the Technical Group were working on the alignment of policies so that the four local authority areas were covered by a single set of coherent policies and that residents were charged, wherever possible, according to a standard set of tariffs regardless of their location.
Arising from the Committee’s questions and comments the following points were noted:
· Wherever possible, Operatives on the ground would be transferred to Amey under the TUPE regulations.
· To ensure that the transition to the new contractor was as smooth as possible for operatives and residents Amey would brief staff as soon as the current contractors would allow them to.
· It was stressed that the use of improved user friendly data capture methods could result in more incidents being reported in the first few months and perceived performance levels could fall initially.
· All members would need to be briefed on the practical implications that the changes could have on residents before the new contract arrangements came into being.
· Proposed fees and charges had been reached by adding the contractor’s anticipated unit cost for each aspect of a service, for example bulky waste collection, and then adding any capital and management costs. These would be recommended for approval by individual councils.
· Any income generated through the fees and charges would remain with individual councils and would not be included in the contract management budgets.
· The presentation would be circulated to members.
The Committee expressed their thanks to the officers involved for all their work to ensure that the contract procurement process had gone smoothly.
The Committee thanked the JWCS Project Manager for her informative update.