City council set to take over waste collections

Bin collections and street cleaning in Peterborough will be run again by the city council from February 2.

The council’s long-term partnership with Amey is set to finally come to an end two years after the split was first announced. The authority had signed a 23-year-contract to outsource key environmental services with Enterprise - which was later bought out by Amey - in 2011, but the authority decided it could deliver better value for money itself, and it became frustrated by city-wide recycling rates of 45 per cent compared to Amey’s target of 60 per cent.

The council will now provide the services under its own commercial company called Peterborough Limited which will also be able to generate extra income by competing for external business. Services to be run by the new company include:

Waste collection

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•Street cleaning

•Cou■ci• buildings maintenance and cleaning

•Mai■te■a■ce of parks and grassed areas

•Provisio■ of buses for home to school transport.

Few details have so far been released of how Peterborough Limited will differ from Amey, but a council report states that “it is the mission of Peterborough Limited to provide high quality services to the residents and businesses of Peterborough in an efficient, effective, flexible and innovative way for the benefit of everyone who lives in, works in, or visits our city.” There are currently six stated aims. These are to:

•Improve and maintain the delivery of high quality services

•Provide and grow commercial services that support local businesses, with proceeds used to deliver services

•E■courage a culture where staff can flourish

•Promote ‘localism’ whereby businesses purchasing services from Peterborough Limited know their money will be spent in the city

•Offer flexible services that meet the needs of a growing, vibrant and multi-cultural city

•De•iver best value for money to the council and its residents. The budget for Peterborough Limited is £10.4 million in 2019/20, rising to an expected £11 million in 2023/24. When the split was first announced, Amey said it was by mutual consent as the contract no longer met the needs of either party.