The London Borough of Waltham Forest has recently awarded its eight-year, £112 million Neighbourhoods Services Contract to Urbaser Ltd.

We have been working with the council from the beginning of the process in July 2017, when we carried out a Commissioning Options Analysis on the waste collection, grounds maintenance and cleansing services.  The analysis supported the council’s decision that the future commissioning route for the services, which were originally contracted out as separate contracts, would be an integrated contract to secure high-quality standards across all areas of the public realm.

With Defra currently consulting on consistency of household collections across the UK, Waltham Forest considered carefully the need to future-proof the services in the contract to ensure that policy changes impacting on local service delivery are considered from the procurement stage. One of the key aspects of our support involved flexible provisions in the contract conditions to ensure that future policy requirements, such as the promised introduction of separate food waste collections, are accounted for and that the service is able to adapt to these changes.

We subsequently supported the council with the implementation of the procurement process using the Competitive Dialogue procedure.

Cllr Clyde Loakes, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for the Environment, said:

“We have worked with Urbaser for many years and so they know Waltham Forest as a place, its neighbourhoods and its people. They will support and help us to maintain clean, safe and green neighbourhoods across Waltham Forest – from Leytonstone in the south to Chingford in the north and everywhere in between – to benefit all of our residents and visitors.

“We know how much residents value reliable, regular waste collections as well as clean streets and council grounds of which our communities can be proud. We look forward to working with them to maintain clean, green and safe neighbourhoods for everyone in Waltham Forest to enjoy.”

David Pietropaoli, our Head of Procurement, said:

“It was a pleasure to work with Waltham Forest during the procurement of the new Neighbourhoods Services Contract, in particular securing and maintaining market interest during a period of significant procurement activity across the country. This was complex project and we faced unique challenges in ensuring that Waltham Forest would be able to put in place the strongest possible opportunity, and I am proud to say that we have achieved this goal.”

Photo courtesy of David Gerard CC BY-SA 3.0.