Telford & Wrekin Council agrees £42 million bins and land deal

The authority has agreed a 10-year contract with ID Verde Ltd, the UK’s largest landscaping and grounds maintenance company.

They will also apply weed killing spray twice a year and sweep all urban roads six times a year.

Neighbourhood services assistant director Angie Astley told councillors that the newly-awarded “grounds and cleansing” contract also covers the pruning of trees and shrubs, litter picking, bin emptying and graffiti removal.

Those jobs were previously carried out by Telford & Wrekin Services (TWS) – which also collected rubbish and maintained roads – but, starting in April, those three services are going to three different companies.

TWS have been the provider for 18 years, Ms Astley told the committee, and had only had to fulfil two annual targets.

“ID Verde now face 32 performance indicators,” Ms Astley said, “and they all carry a penalty for non-performance so we have ‘teeth’ should the contractor not deliver for us.

“We will have failed if we get to that point, but it’s good to know the contract is robust enough to deal with that.”

The 10-year contract consists of a seven-year starting period with possible extensions of up to three years, based on whether ID Verde meet those targets.

Ms Astley told the Customer, Community and Partnership Scrutiny Committee that, as well as being more flexible and offering more accountability, this contract also saved the council money.

ID Verde’s £4.2million annual cost was £695,000 less than before.

Councillor Jacqui Seymour asked whether the pledge to sweep all roads six times a year, or a similar pledge, applied to roads without curbs and pavements in rural areas of the borough.

“The roads with no curbs are some of the worst,” the Wrockwardine ward member added.

Ms Astley said those roads were not covered, but they would remain subject to the “re-active” service, and would be cleared if a problem was reported and it needed doing.

Ms Astley said lawyers for Telford & Wrekin Council and ID Verde were finalising the contracts, and they will be signed in the next three weeks, and “mobilisation” would happen on April 1.

“So, from April next year, there will be no TWS because the services will have gone to those three providers,” she said.

“The workforce will be transferred over to those contractors. It’s important we work with TWS employees to make sure they are meeting with the new companies. We all know how concerning it can be when your employer changes.”

By Alex Moore, Local Democracy Reporter