Agenda item

To submit a report by the Interim Head of Highways, Waste and Property Services.

The report of the Head of Service (Highways, Waste and Property) seeking the Executive’s approval to appoint a temporary Project Manager up to 31 March, 2021 was presented for consideration.

The Portfolio Member for Highways, Waste and Property reported that the Council has a statutory duty to collect waste, to keep relevant land free of litter and to meet statutory recycling targets. The total cost of this service in 2017/18 was approximately £3.8m. The current 14 year contract with Biffa Municipal ends on 21 March, 2021 and plans have to be developed to ensure viable options are in place when the current contract ends. The process of re-procuring the contract will be a major task and given its size and complexity, significant resources will be required to deliver the project. As shown in section 2 of the report several specialisms have to be brought together as part of the procurement process to ensure the different streams are managed and implemented in a timely way. It is the opinion of Officers and the Senior Leadership Team that a Project Manager should be appointed on a relatively short-term contract to ensure the procurement project is delivered to a high standard to ensure risks are minimised, deadline dates are met and value for money is obtained for the Council.

The Executive considered the information presented and in recognising the magnitude and complexity of the new contract undertaking, it made the following points –

•  That everything possible must be done to ensure the contract procured is fit for purpose.

•  That a short-term additional project management resource is considered necessary because of a lack of capacity within the Council due to many years of cutbacks. It was noted that the appointee however will work with staff at the Council’s Waste Management Section who will provide the majority of the time, expertise and resources to support the procurement process.

•  Whether there is scope to consider working jointly with a neighbouring local authority thereby sharing capacity.

•  Whether there is scope for the Council to consider in-house delivery of the waste collection and cleansing service.

•  How would the Project Manager’s spare days (1-2 days per week in the first 2 financial years and 3 days per week in the final year) be apportioned between the other transformation projects noted in the report.

•  Whether recruiting the right individual with the required expertise on a temporary basis is likely to prove difficult.

The Portfolio Member for Highways, Waste and Property said that it is envisaged that the temporary Project Manager will perform the tasks listed in Appendix 1 to the report including conducting an options appraisal to assess what services should be delivered and how. The Portfolio Member referred to possible avenues of recruitment e.g. the construction of the Parc Adfer energy recovery facility in Flintshire is nearing completion which might lead to a project management resource becoming available.

The Chief Waste Management Officer advised that a great deal of collaborative work in waste management is already taking place e.g. with Flintshire and other North Wales authorities as part of the North Wales Residual Waste Management Project of which Parc Adfer forms a part; there is also dialogue with Gwynedd on a day to day basis. However a joint commitment is unlikely because of issues of need and timing in relation to going out to tender. The in-house route will be considered as part of a comprehensive options appraisal exercise which will review what services should be provided, how they should be delivered and managed, and at what cost. Whilst the Project Manager’s key task will be to project manage the procurement of the new waste collection and cleansing contract, it is not envisaged that the requirements of this work will occupy all of the appointee’s time and that spare days as outlined in the report will be available to be spent on other priority projects where project management support is required; this will be arranged in consultation with the Transformation Service.

It was resolved to authorise the appointment of a temporary Project Manager up to March, 2021 to –

•  Carry out an options appraisal to assess how waste should be collected and cleaned in future.

•  Project manage the procurement of a new waste collection and cleansing contract which will start on 1 April, 2021.

•  Project manage additional one-off projects across the Council as required.