Taking the long-term view on waste collections and street cleansing

05 July 2024

A bin collection lorry in a residential street

A comprehensive review of how Wirral Council provides its waste collection and street cleansing service is now underway.

With the current contract with Biffa ending in August 2027, the council has started work on a detailed assessment of potential options for delivering the services in the future.

Supported by Eunomia Research and Consulting Ltd (Eunomia), a specialist and experienced environmental consulting company, the review is looking at the financial implications of each option under consideration, as well as any associated risks.

Initial findings are being developed into an Outline Business Case (OBC) which will be presented to members of the Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee on July 15th.

This OBC presents councillors with a detailed assessment of a range of potential options for the delivering waste collection and street cleansing services after August 2027, which include bringing the work back fully in-house, fully outsourcing services to an external contractor, delivering them through a local authority trading company or a combination of one or other of those options.

Members will be asked to consider these potential options against the risks and financial implications and decide which should be explored further as part of the development of a Full Business Case (FBC).

Cllr Grey explains what this means for Wirral residents and what the next steps will be.

Once members of the committee decide which options to take forward for the Full Business Case, the review will focus closely on the future service specification, including how waste and recycling will be collected from households in Wirral and the street cleansing services required. The FBC will be reported back to committee later this year.

All of the options explored so far include a separate weekly collection of food waste, as this will be a legal requirement from April 2026, with the government committed to providing funding for the implementation and on-going running costs of a food waste collection service.

In parallel to the appraisal of options for delivery of Waste Collection and Street Cleansing, a new Waste Management Strategy is also being developed, to capture other changes in legislation and ensure that the Council’s waste collection service going forward is fit for purpose to deliver the climate emergency and zero waste targets. The new Waste Management Strategy will also be presented to this Committee later this year.