VEAT Notice Waste, Recycling, Street Cleansing and Parks and Open Spaces Services

Watford Borough Council (‘the Council) intends to extend the contract with Veolia (ES) UK Limited for the provision of waste, recycling, streets and parks and open spaces services in Watford and with relevant support and supporting services such as call-centre, vehicle fleet management and maintenance and depot. The maximum potential total of £59.4 million (6 years) and would commence on 1 July 2028 when the current contracts ends (on 30 June 2028) with a break clause at year 4 on 12 months’ notice. The existing contract falls under the 2015 Public Contract Regulations. Therefore any decision on extension needs to take account of those set out in Regulation 72 of the PCR’s.

The proposed extension would fall within the provisions of Regulation 72(c)where all of the following conditions are fulfilled:—

(i)the need for modification has been brought about by circumstances which a diligent contracting authority could not have foreseen;

(ii)the modification does not alter the overall nature of the contract;

(iii)any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract or framework agreement. Local Government Reorganisation means that it would not be appropriate to go out to tender to reprocure this service, for a number of reasons:

•Waste Collection Authority and Waste Disposal Authority functions will become a combined function under new unitary responsibilities requiring a full system redesign for future service delivery by a successor authority

•Harmonisation of service standards across former district and borough footprints to new Unitary Authority Footprints and the method of collection will need to be determined by a successor authority

•Consideration of the wider waste infrastructure such as fleet, depots and transfer stations required under new administrative boundaries

•There are a mixture of in house and outsourced services and different contract end dates and a need to align decisions on service delivery models and contract expiry dates.

•It will require significant officer resource to re procure and broadly has a 3 year procurement timeline requiring external resource and would be compromised by the LGR transitional period and would not be cost effective to procure at this time.

Further to this new Waste and Recycling Legislation and Policy is being implemented which is disrupting the wider waste and recycling sector and includes Simpler Recycling, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), Emissions Trading Scheme and target from the Government to recycle 65% of Municipal waste by 2035 through the provisions set out in the Environment Act 2021. This is creating an uncertain commercial market impacting procurement.

To view this notice, please click here:

https://www.delta-esourcing.com/delta/viewNotice.html?noticeId=1001895185