Focus placed on future of Daventry's bin and recycling collections

Daventry District Council has announced it is ‘moving forward’ with plans to explore all future options for household waste and recycling collections once the current contract ends.

In 2011 DDC, jointly with Northampton Borough Council, signed a seven-year environmental services contract with Enterprise (now part of the Amey Group). This included household waste and recycling collections, along with grounds maintenance and looking after Daventry Country Park.

The planned end date of the contract is June 3 2018 and DDC has not yet determined how it will provide these services after this date.

The council is therefore carrying out a ‘Waste Options Appraisal’ which it says is looking at all possibilities for how the service could be delivered, and what sort of services would be provided to households.

Following this review, options will then be explored for other environmental services under the contract, such as street cleaning and grounds maintenance.

Potential options range from renewing the current type of contract, splitting the services up, to bringing one or more parts back in house. It could see DDC contracting out the service on its own, or again working in partnership with another local authority.

DDC recently asked members of the Daventry District People’s Panel to gather initial residents’ views and ideas on existing and future waste and recycling collections. It is anticipated that wider public consultation will take place this spring.

DDC’s environment portfolio holder Cllr Jo Gilford said: “In the climate of financial pressures we are facing, we must review the cost and delivery of our front-line services at the earliest opportunities. The contract’s end date may seem some time away, but it’s important that we start planning now to explore our future options.

“Some procurement options, for example, will have very long lead-in times and in an ever-changing technical, legal and financial landscape for waste and recycling, we need to be properly informed about the best approaches for providing these services.”

Cllr Gilford added: “We are not only drawing upon the expertise of an experienced consultant to help us do this but have involved the People’s Panel in the early stages to find out what local people think about the existing service and the future options available to us. As the process moves forward this spring, we will be encouraging all residents in the District to get involved and give their views on the future of waste and recycling.”