Urbaser has been awarded a 9-year waste, recycling and street cleansing contract by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. The £4.6m per annum contract commences from April 2020.
Bidders were evaluated on a range of criteria, overseen by a cross-party procurement board and independent environmental consultancy, Eunomia, Continental Landscapes were also awarded a £1.1m per year contract to carry out the council's grounds maintenance works.
Urbaser is one of the largest environmental service providers in Europe and works in partnership with many local authorities across the UK including Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Bournemouth, East and North Herts, Gosport Borough Council, Waltham Forest Council and Burnley Borough Council
Urbaser will work closely with the council to introduce a number of service improvements from autumn 2020, including weekly food waste collections, and a weekly collection of small electrical items, textiles and household batteries.
There will be no changes to bin collections initially and Urbaser will review the rounds once they are running the service. Residents will be notified well in advance of any changes due to take place.
Ka Ng, Corporate Director at Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, said: ‘We are really pleased to put new contracts in place that deliver value for money and better services for our residents. We know people want to recycle as much as they can and we're positive the borough's recycling rate will increase as we give residents more opportunities to do so.
‘We will be working closely with Serco over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition and I would like to thank them for their many years of hard work in the borough.'
Javier Peiro, Managing Director, Urbaser said: ‘We are delighted to be awarded this contract and we look forward to working with Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council to deliver these vital services to residents and service users. We are committed to enhancing the existing services to help achieve increased recycling rates whilst improving street cleanliness and implementing innovative solutions to reduce littering.'
