Agenda item

Report ES19020

Report ES19020 sought approval to 2019/20 charges proposed for Commercial Waste Collection Services (CWCS)and for waste delivered to the waste transfer stations.  

Waste Collection Authorities (WCA) have a duty under section 45(1)(b) of the Environment Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of commercial waste where requested to do so and the Council provides a reasonably priced alternative to private sector CWCS operators. The service is reviewed and fees set annually to ensure it covers all reasonable costs on a full cost recovery basis. Pricing applied to the CWCS comprises:

·  an analysis of the annual contract inflationary increase in service charges applied (or in this case the new contract prices);

·  forecasting increases in cost of waste disposal associated with the activity:

·  annual application of Landfill Tax impacting on a proportion of the waste disposal charges; and

·  a benchmarking exercise of regional London boroughs to establish competiveness of the fees and charges applied.

Results of benchmarking for the 2019/20 Fees and Charges were appended to Report ES19020 (covering collection and disposal of commercial waste and container rental for domestic waste). Current service fees are 18.5% below average benchmarked prices of analysed regional authorities, demonstrating flexibility for service fees to increase in pricing the CWCS and hire charges.  

The review also included consideration of new costs as part of a full cost recovery model (e.g. recovering the new waste management service contract costs for administering the service) as well as the waste collection and waste disposal costs from the CWCS along with:

·  a recommended 30% reduction in the CWCS for container rental;

·  a 36% increase in collection and disposal charge; and

·  an annual Waste Transfer Note administration charge of £110.

For commercial and industrial waste delivered to the Council’s disposal waste transfer stations, current prices were recommended to continue at £185 per tonne including VAT (however, a service charge cannot be applied for direct delivery of charitable waste to the waste disposal operation).

Members supported the recommendations in Report ES19020.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be recommended to agree: 

(1)  the application of increases in service costs for the commercial waste collection service as outlined at paragraph 3.5 of Report ES19020, comprising a 30% decrease for the rental charge of commercial waste containers, a 36% fee increase for collection and disposal of waste and an adjusted fee rate for administration of the waste transfer note documentation at £110;

(2)  a decrease in the charge for rental of domestic bulk waste containers by 30% to reflect recovery of actual costs, as outlined at paragraph 3.6 of Report ES19020;

(3)  that the recommended price applied to commercial and industrial waste delivered to the Council’s disposal waste transfer stations remains at the 2018/19 prices of £185 per tonne; and

(4)  that authority be delegated to the Executive Director of Environment and Community Services, through consultation with the Portfolio Holder, to apply further changes to fees for chargeable waste services due to the delay caused through mobilisation of the new waste management contract, and to ensure the application of pricing adjustment(s) to ensure that a full-cost recovery of charges for services is achieved in-year.