A report proposing that Recycling & Waste Services enter a twelve-month trial contract with an external provider to deliver enhanced levels of environmental enforcement activity.

The Committee received a report on a proposal to progress a compliant procurement exercise to engage an Environmental Enforcement partner on a twelve-month trial basis. The following documents were appended to the report:

Appendix 1 - FAQ

Appendix 2 - Draft Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Appendix 3 – Equality Impact Assessment

Appendix 4 – Corporate Enforcement Policy

The report explained that the Council’s current resources were unable to deliver the full range of discretionary environmental enforcement activity desired by residents, as well as delivering education to improve waste behaviours and achieve increased rates of recycling to meet statutory strategic objectives. In order to deliver these discretionary service functions the Council had the choice of either accepting resource limitations or partnering with the private sector in the delivery of its enforcement activity, delivering all activities to an enhanced, high-profile, standard at no additional cost.

The report stated that the Council was seeking to enter a limited twelve-month contract via an established procurement framework to trial this approach. The services would be provided at no cost to the local authority, with the Partner covering the cost of enforcement resources through the receipt of an agreed share of fixed penalty payments. The twelve-month trial would operate on terms that permitted the Council to monitor the performance of the contractor against a range of agreed Environmental Key Performance Indicators. The contract would also ensure that they operated in compliance with the Council’s own adopted policies and procedures in their undertaking of agreed activities and adhered to the Council’s published schedule of Fixed Penalty rates. A full review of the contractual relationship would be undertaken after six months and, should the trial prove successful, the Council would commence a full procurement exercise to identify a partner to provide continuity of services for a subsequent two years.

Resolved:

(1)      That the benefits of entering a 12-month trial contract for the provision of additional Environmental Enforcement Services from an external partner be noted;

(2)        That further reports on contract performance be submitted to future meetings of the Committee.