Central Bedfordshire Council to seek new recycling contractor in new year

Collections of the green and orange lid bins were paused after Central Bedfordshire Council said it was given a day’s notice by a contractor that its recycling services would be suspended.

The local authority responded to a potential price hike in the handling of its collected recycled waste by making alternative arrangements for the processing of the materials.

Household collections resumed on Monday December 15, but there is a backlog to work through after the festive season.

Council leader and Independent Potton councillor Adam Zerny told an extraordinary full council meeting: “Approval to begin tendering for a new multi-year contract will go to the executive committee in the New Year.

“I was impressed by the patience and stoicism of our residents, including those who missed the bin collection and were caused disruption,” he said.

“I’m arranging for this to be discussed in more detail at a future (sustainable communities) scrutiny meeting. Hopefully we can find out if anything could have been done even better to prevent something like this happening again.”

Referring to events of recent months, he explained: “The Elstow site is a waste transfer station owned by Bedford Borough Council and operated by waste management company Veolia UK.

“Our waste collection firm FCC Environment (UK) Limited took it there. Associated Waste Management (AWM) collected that waste and took it from there to a site near Grantham in Lincolnshire for recycling.

“There was a fire at the Elstow site in July and as per the contract there was a contingency plan in it. Veolia put that in place and made arrangements to take the waste to a site at Bletchley instead, so the contingency worked correctly.

“But in October there was a fire at AWM’s treatment centre at Grantham. The company instigated its contingency arrangements as required, moving its operations to a different material recycling facility near Leicester.

“Both of the contingencies around this worked. However, AWM told the council with immediate notice it wouldn’t be treating that waste any longer. As such, the (Central Bedfordshire) collections being made by FCC the following day wouldn’t be recycled.

“CBC was made aware the only way it would continue (the recycling process) would be if the council accepted an increase of more than double. I’m absolutely supportive of officers refusing that.

“Officers set in place an action plan and work began straight away to find a new contractor within the framework arrangement. This is a detailed plan which allows the local authority to access other facilities, once the necessary contracts are in place.

“That allows the council to create a new arrangement in a matter of days to cover the rest of the financial year,” he added. “The new contractor will collect the material (for recycling) from Bletchley.

“All this fits together well, while FCC is also working within those arrangements. CBC will incur some extra costs in the short-term, but it’s considering legal options to recover that from AWM.”