Same day clear-ups will clean-up our streets
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
24/01/2008
In a first for Hammersmith and Fulham, refuse and recycling could be collected on the same day with the streets then swept up afterwards, to a much higher standard than at the moment.
A council report sets out how the borough’s streets will be cleaner and greener if town hall leaders give the go ahead at a cabinet meeting on February 4.
The move follows an in-depth market testing process to find the ideal organisation for the job. In May 2006, the council decided to market test its services for refuse collection, recycling and street cleansing. At the outset, it was decided that the in-house services should compete for the contracts. A panel of experts evaluated all the bids and although the in-house team’s bid was competitive, specialist cleaning company Serco's bid was judged to have the clear edge on quality and was more likely to deliver the step change improvement which the new contract specifications require.
Cllr Nicholas Botterill, H&F Council Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, leads on cleaner streets for the council. He says, "Residents are rightly demanding cleaner streets and, if we do go ahead and appoint Serco, we will have a specialist company in place to pick up rubbish and recycling and then sweep the street all on the same day.
"The simple process of tendering has already delivered big savings to taxpayers. Our current in-house team have improved their productivity and saved £900,000 a year as a direct consequence of our decision to tender these services. This contract will lead to a big improvement in service quality and further savings should be made as Serco have committed to help the council to increase its market share of commercial waste collections, delivering better value for money with an improved service."
If appointed, Serco will be working to a vastly improved contract specification. Street cleansing teams will have state-of-the-art machinery and cleaning will happen at the times when it is most needed.
Cllr Botterill concluded, "We will not shy away from putting the interests of residents first by ensuring that we are getting the best possible services at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayer. Our search has taken over 18 months but I am positive that, if Serco are appointed, standards will be driven up. We promised a cleaner, greener borough and this could be another step towards that goal."
