Westmorland and Furness council’s controversial £60 garden waste subscription that opened for subscription on the first of April and that will see garden waste only collected from households that subscribe to the service from June is beyond the councils current ability to administer the service
The council said “The administration of the garden waste subscription service is an onerous one and at the current time the customer and digital team are undergoing a transformation of the pre front door offering and do not have the resource to undertake the requirements effectively. In addition, the waste services teams all currently operate differently, and the priority is to align the services to a single way of working with the ideal solution being residents can request this service primarily online with an option of contact via the phone when required”.
The council lack of internal resources to administer the garden waste subscription as seen it award a £216,000 contract without any open tender process to award a contract to Permiserve Limited who will administer the printing and posting of garden waste subscription permits to residents in Westmorland and Furness who wish to subscribe to the garden waste service.
The council agreed to award a contract to Permiserve Limited, whose registered office address and ownership changed within days of the contract award and is now part of an American owned corporation following what the council claims was a “ procurement exercise were the only company identified who could deliver the administration element of the garden waste subscription programme”.
The scope for the contract includes the printing and posting of the resident permit pack, dedicated management portal, all artwork and technical support.
The contract will be delivered over a two year period with the company managing the subscription service for the council during this period.
The council claims that “A consultation on the proposed collections was undertaken with the public” and that the “overall responses were that people would be willing to subscribe to have garden waste collected”.
The council hopes that by implementing a subscription service it will encourage residents to consider home composting.
The council said the if it did not approve the decision, “it could lead to delays in the implementation and delivery of the service, risking the ability to achieve the budgeted level of income expected”.
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