Agenda item

That the proposed changes to the Amey contract, identified in section 5 of the report, be approved subject to the provision of some contingency funding to be available, if required, for hedge trimming to respond during any exceptional periods of growth.

The Cabinet received a report proposing savings and efficiencies to the Environmental Services Contract with Amey.  The proposals could be achieved in the short to medium term without major transformation to the services.

The savings detailed in the report included changes to the timing of bin collections, street cleaning and slight reductions in grass cutting and hedge trimming.  The total savings for 2015/16 arising from the package would be £516,147.18.  Commissioners were assured that the changes were unlikely to have a significant material impact on the quality of services and the changes would be introduced in parallel with more scouting and monitoring to carry out activity when required rather than to pre-arranged schedules.  The Cabinet approved all of the proposals, however, they further agreed that some contingency be available to enable additional hedge trimming to be carried out in the summer months if growing conditions meant this was required.

Resolved –  That the proposed changes to the Amey contract, identified in section 5 of the report, be approved subject to the provision of some contingency funding to be available, if required, for hedge trimming to respond during any exceptional periods of growth.