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Cabinet - Thursday 15 April 2021 10am - £40 Brown Bin Charge for Garden waste collection; Mixed Tenure Waste Collection(Free) Scheme taken In House?
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TOPIC: Cabinet - Thursday 15 April 2021 10am - £40 Brown Bin Charge for Garden waste collection; Mixed Tenure Waste Collection(Free) Scheme taken In House?

Cabinet - Thursday 15 April 2021 10am - £40 Brown Bin Charge for Garden waste collection; Mixed Tenure Waste Collection(Free) Scheme taken In House? 2 years, 12 months ago #1

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Department of Corporate and Community Services
Deputy Chief Executive:
Caroline Innes BSc (Hons)
Council Headquarters, Eastwood Park, Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, G46 6UG
Phone: 0141 577 3000 Fax: 0141 577 3834
website: www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk
Date:26 March 2021
When calling please ask for: Sharon McIntyre (Tel. No 0141-577-3011)
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

TO:
Councillors T Buchanan (Chair); C Bamforth; D Devlin; A Lafferty; C Merrick; and P O’Kane.

CABINET
A meeting of the Cabinet will be held on Thursday, 15 April 2021 at 10.00am.

The agenda of business is as shown below.

Please note this is a virtual meeting.

Caroline Innes
C INNES
DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE

You can read the full agenda on the Council website here -

www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/cabinet-150421

AGENDA
1.Report apologies for absence.

2.Declarations of Interest.

3.Joint Consultative Committee (First Tier) – Minute of Meeting of 11 February2021 (copy attached, pages 3 - 6).

4.Review of the Strategic Risk Register and Risk Management Process – Report by Chief Executive (copy attached, pages 7 - 36).

5.Mixed Tenure Scheme - Report by Director of Environment (copy attached,pages 37 - 42)

You can read the Report via the Council Website here -

www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/media/4849/C...m=637528737010430000

6.Garden Waste Charging Proposal Update - Report by Director of Environment(copy attached, pages 43 - 50

You can read the report via the Council Website here -

www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/media/4850/C...m=637528737018870000

Re: Cabinet - Thursday 15 April 2021 10am - £40 Brown Bin Charge for Garden waste collection; Mixed Tenure Waste Collection(Free) Scheme taken In House? 2 years, 11 months ago #2

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MIXED TENURE CONTRACT

It would appear Council now want to take this 'IN HOUSE'

This was the report submitted to the Cabinet meeting 28 January 2021 saying they had 'forgotten' to renew the contract !



EAST RENFREWSHIRE COUNCIL
CABINET
28 January 2021
Report by Director of Environment

MIXED TENURE SCHEME

PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.The purpose of this report is to advise the Cabinet on the current circumstances with regard to the expiry of the contract with the Council’s third-party provider for the management of the Mixed Tenure Scheme.

In particular the report advises on the continuation since November 2019 of the previously competitively tendered contract on the same terms and conditions and contract rates which demonstrates that it was continued on a best value basis.

RECOMMENDATIONS
2.It is recommended that the Cabinet,

(a)Notes that the contract with VERG (the Council’s third-party Mixed Tenure Scheme provider) expired at the end of November 2019 and that due to an oversight and subsequently coronavirus related issues the contract was not retendered within the timescale required;

(b)Notes that the tendered contract was considered to have provided from December 2015 important high-quality services and value for money;

(c)Notes that for the reasons outlined in this report the contract has been continued on the previous terms and conditions and competitively tendered rates between the period from December 2019 to February 2021 at a projected cost of £375,000 (to 31 March 2021 should the Cabinet agreed to extend the current arrangement until then);

(d)The total expenditure is above EU threshold but is appropriate under thePublic Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, Regulation 33 (1) (C) which permits a negotiated contract without prior publication for reasons of urgency due to events unforeseen by the contracting authority;

(e)Approves the continued use of the contract on this basis until 31 March 2021which is within the budgetary provision which had been made for the scheme over that period; and(f)Notes that the contract will be competitively retendered to run from 31 March2021.

BACKGROUND AND REPORT
3.The Mixed Tenure Scheme was established in 2013 to improve the condition of mixed tenure estates which comprise both Council houses and private properties.

The existing contract was subject to competitive tender and awarded in December 2015.

4. The existing contract has provided a much-needed very high quality service and good value for money.

It is highly appreciated by our residents and also by Elected Members.

In addition, it has provided added value for the local economy, employability and opportunities for our Care Experienced Young People.

This is explained in further detail in this report.

5. The scheme, which has an annual budget of £500,000, is managed on behalf of the Council by a third party contractor ( called VERG).

It should be noted the annual budget pays for the services provided directly by VERG as well paying for the services tendered to Private Contractors.

6. The main element of the contract with the third party contractor is the provision of a “Hit Squad” of around 10 operational staff.

This squad deals with problems such as fly tipping or litter picks in Council areas regardless of housing tenure.

They also undertake small remedial works, garden clearance, tree management and small project development.

7. In addition to the hit squad, the third party contractor manages on the Council’s behalf services procured through a number of private contractors appointed by the Council through competitive tender and standard Council contract procedures.

The services provided through these contracts includes:

•Garden and hedge maintenance.

•Close cleaning and painting to enhance the cleanliness and visual appearance of block properties

•Smaller improvements to the physical fabric of the estate (such as fence painting, minor repairs, fence replacement, bin store demolition, footpath improvements and slabbing etc)

8. Overall in the financial year 2019/20 the substantial number of projects delivered through the hit squad and contractors amounted to around:

•2500 ad hoc requests (uplifts relating to garden and household waste and regular uplift of flytipping hotspots), (hit squad)

•3829 close cleans

•3250 garden maintenance visits (Contractor& HIT Squad)

•60 tree cuts

•100 repairs to fences

•40 path/slabbing remedial repairs

•40 close paintings

9. The Mixed Tenure Scheme also provides added value to the local economy and other Council strategic objectives by providing training for local people and creating and sustaining local employment.

With the exception of the Project Officer, all 10 members of the current squad are from East Renfrewshire.

The project further supports the Council Family Firm initiative for Care Experienced Young People (CEYP) in offering work experience.

This particular element of the scheme is provided free of charge by the third party contractor.

Since its creation the scheme has provided opportunities for work experience for 10 CEYP, 2 which are from East Renfrewshire and are still employed on the squad.

The scheme has also provided volunteering opportunities with WorkER and Adult Education Services to 10 local residents, 2 of which are now employed.

10. The contract with the third party contractor expired in November 2019.

Unfortunately, due to an oversight the re-tendering process was not started on time.

When this was recognised and the re-tendering process recommenced just prior to March 2020 it was then further delayed due to staff having to deal with emerging Covid related issues.

11. At around the same time (March 2020) the Council began to identify a developing urgent need for additional resources to supplement Council resources in a number of areas.

Initial COVID-19 related restrictions on undertaking certain types of work meant that the hit squad were likely to have surplus capacity.

This meant that there was an opportunity for the scheme to assist with wider Covid related services

12.It was felt that without the Mixed Tenure Scheme the condition of local mixed tenure estates would deteriorate significantly during the lockdown period placing significant pressure on existing Council services.

To have suspended this service due to the tendering/contract issue would have created health and safety risks for residents and in buildings had they not been addressed.

13.Given all the circumstances outlined above the contract with the third party contractor was allowed to continue to run on a monthly basis on the same terms and conditions and previously tendered rates particularly given the satisfaction with the quality of the service and perceived value for money provided through the existing contract.

The contract payments continued to be invoiced by the contractor and paid monthly.

14.As a result of this decision the hit squad where then able to proceed to

•Assist ERC with delivering food parcels and equipment to the distribution points for those vulnerable residents in East Renfrewshire.

•Assist the wider Environment Department in providing bank holiday cover

•Sanitise handrails, door handles and lift panels at Montgomery Court Sheltered Housing complex.

•Remove the waste generated by an increase in fly tipping & remove contaminated bin and fire hazards in communal areas.

•Remove excess garden waste.

15.A re-tender exercise has commenced for the Mixed Tenure Scheme from 2021/22 with the aim of letting a new contract from 31 March 2021.

FINANCE AND EFFICIENCY
16. The total cost of the ongoing monthly continuation of the third party contract will be £375,000 for the period from December 2019 until the end of March 2021.

There is no additional financial consequences for the Council in this respect.

Budgetary provision of that level already exists.

17.Colleagues within Procurement are currently working on the development of an online contracts register which will be visible across the Council to all officers, ensuring a single source of accurate information for contract data.

The system will include alert functionality for contract end dates ensuring sufficient time for officers to prepare for re-tendering activity.

The system is expected to go live in the new financial year with training provided for appropriate staff dealing with contracts.

CONSULTATION1
8. Legal Services and Procurement have been advised of the current position and the proposal to retender the scheme as quickly as possible (from 31 March 2021) and have raised no concerns given the particular circumstances.

PARTNERSHIP WORKING
19 . This project will continue to be overseen by ERC Housing Services.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE PROPOSALS
20. There are no staffing, IT, legal, equality or financial implications directly associated with this report at this point in time.

CONCLUSIONS
21. The Mixed Tenure Scheme delivers essential rapid response neighbourhood services, ensuring mixed tenure areas within East Renfrewshire are well maintained for all residents.

In order to support key Council services it was essential that this service was continued to ensure local mixed tenure estates were maintained effectively.

For this reason it was felt that to discontinue the service during COVID would have been significantly detrimental to residents

RECOMMENDATIONS
22. It is recommended that the Cabinet,

(a)Notes that the contract with VERG (the Council’s third-party Mixed Tenure Scheme provider) expired at the end of November 2019 and that due to an oversight and subsequently coronavirus related issues the contract was not retendered within the timescale required;

(b)Notes that the tendered contract was considered to have provided from December 2015 important high-quality services and value for money;

(c) Notes that for the reasons outlined in this report the contract has been continued on the previous terms and conditions and competitively tendered rates between the period from December 2019 to February 2021 at a projected cost of £375,000 (to 31 March 2021 should the Cabinet agreed to extend the current arrangement until then);

(d)The total expenditure is above EU threshold but is appropriate under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, Regulation 33 (1) (C) which permits a negotiated contract without prior publication for reasons of urgency due to events unforeseen by the contracting authority;

(e)Approves the continued use of the contract on this basis until 31 March 2021 which is within the budgetary provision which had been made for the scheme over that period; and

(f) Notes that the contract will be competitively retendered to run from 31 March 2021.

Director of Environment6
Further information can be obtained from Phil Daws Head of Strategy Environment department 0141577 3186

Convener contact details
Councillor Danny Devlin Home: 0141 580 0288
(Convener for Housing & Maintenance Services) Office: 0141 577 3107

January 2021

Re: Cabinet - Thursday 15 April 2021 10am - £40 Brown Bin Charge for Garden waste collection; Mixed Tenure Waste Collection(Free) Scheme taken In House? 2 years, 11 months ago #3

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MIXED TENURE SERVICE

Should the Council be considering introducing an annual charge for this service?

Re: Cabinet - Thursday 15 April 2021 10am - £40 Brown Bin Charge for Garden waste collection; Mixed Tenure Waste Collection(Free) Scheme taken In House? 2 years, 11 months ago #4

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Some further information regarding the Mixed Tenure service.


Request for information regarding -
- Details of the names and locations of mixed tenure estates

Answer -
By definition a mixed tenure estate is defined by the existence of multiple tenures within its boundaries. I.e. Council, Housing Association, Owner Occupier, Private Lets.
For the purposes of recording these are set as Barrhead, Neilston ,Eaglesham,Thornliebank ,Busby and Newton Mearns although these can be further drawn own to smaller areas for the purposes of project development


Request regarding -
-' For the purposes of recording these are set as Barrhead, Neilston ,Eaglesham,Thornliebank ,Busby and Newton Mearns although these can be further drawn own to smaller areas for the purposes of project development'
Would appreciate if you can give the names/details of these 'smaller areas' that Barrhead, Neilston etc can be further drawn down to.'

Answer -
This comment relates ,mainly to the larger of our areas, Barrhead, which for the purposes  of clarity/instruction can be further defined as Auchenback, Dunterlie, Centre, Craigheads, etc. We do not collect specific monitoring information however at these levels

Please provide the following information –
Concerning para 8 in the report -
'8. Overall in the financial year 2019/20 the substantial number of projects delivered through the hit squad and contractors amounted to around:

•2500 ad hoc requests (uplifts relating to garden and household waste and regular uplift of fly tipping hotspots), (hit squad)
•3829 close cleans
•3250 garden maintenance visits (Contractor& HIT Squad)
•60 tree cuts
•100 repairs to fences
•40 path/slabbing remedial repairs
•40 close paintings'

Answer -
As the provision of detailed addresses, where held may identify residents who have accessed the service this information is provided on an area basis only.

The nature of the service is that in addition to ad hoc requests a regular weekly pick up is carried out in each of the identified mixed tenure estates.

Where debris, rubbish is found it is cleared ,where not the squad move on.

As such no detail can be provided on the breakdown requested below


Request concerning previous reply -
'The nature of the service is that in addition to ad hoc requests a regular weekly pick up is carried out in each of the identified mixed tenure estates. Where debris, rubbish is found it is cleared ,where not the squad move on. As such no detail can be provided on the breakdown requested below'

Answer -
At the risk of seeming pedantic the issue in the question is the difference between “request” and “uplift”.
The nature of this element of the service, whilst it does respond to specific requests, is that it is based on a regular “sweep” of certain areas to determine if “unreported” debris or rubbish has been deposited.
As previously mentioned – sometimes this produces work other occasions not . As such detail on this cannot be provided.

Request for information regarding -
'for the provided number of 2500 ad hoc requests
- names and location of Fly Tipping hotspots
- Number of uplifts relating to garden waste broken down by locations
- Number of uplifts relating to household waste broken down by locations
- Number of uplifts relating to regular uplift of fly tipping hotspots broken down by locations
and for the other work/services'

Answer -
In relation to the location of weekly picks ups and “hotspots” – these are identified through regular complaints made.
They are intended to supplement, not necessarily replace, already existing Neighbourhood Services and by their nature focus on areas which these already existing services are not sufficient.
I am however not in a position to provide locations as to do so would/could unfairly identify residents and imply they were responsible for any issues at the location.

Request for information regarding -
- Provided Number of close cleans broken down by locations

Answer -
Thornliebank 44
Busby 2
Eaglesham 2
Newton Mearns 6
Neilston 19
Barrhead 152
Each close cleaned on average 17 times in year

Request for information regarding -
- Provided Number of garden maintenance visits (Contractor& HIT Squad) broken down by locations

Answer -
Neilston 260
Newton Mearns 34
Thornliebank 96
Barrhead 2860


Request for information regarding -
- Provided Number of tree cuts broken down by locations

Answer -
Newton Mearns 13
Neilston 10
Barrhead 25
Eaglesham 4
Busby 4
Thornliebank 4

Request for information regarding -

- Provided Number of repairs to fences broken down by locations

Answer -
Barrhead 72
Neilston 18
Newton Mearns 4
Busby 6

Request for information regarding -
- Provided Number of path/slabbing remedial repairs broken down by locations

Answer -
Barrhead 18
Neilston 6
Eaglesham 3
Thornliebank 3
Busby 4
Newton Mearns 6

Request for information regarding -
- Provided Number of close paintings broken down by locations

Answer -
Barrhead 28
Eaglesham 12

Request for information regarding -
'CHARGES/PAYMENTS
- Number and charges issued for each of all of the above services
to Council Tenants(Council houses)

to Private Tenants/Owners (private properties)
- Number and payments made for each of the above services

by Council Tenants(Council houses)
by Private Tenants/Owners (private properties)'

Answer -
As the service is funded by the Housing Revenue account and General Fund no charges are made to individual residents for the services received/delivered


Request for information regarding -
'Requesting one of the above services.

How does an East Renfrewshire Council Tax Payer/Resident request one of these services as described in the report –
Requests for the service can be made by contacting Customer Service Centres of the Council
- garden waste uplift
- household waste uplift
- fly tipping hotspots uplift
- uplift relating to fly tipping
- close clean
- garden maintenance visit (Contractor& HIT Squad)
- tree cuts
- repairs to fences
- path/slabbing remedial repairs
- close paintings

Answer
- 'Requests for the service can be made by contacting Customer Service Centres of the Council '


Request for information regarding -
- 'Requests for the service can be made by contacting Customer Service Centres of the Council '
 
Answer -
I can confirm that any resident of East Renfrewshire, irrespective of tenure, can make a service request to our Customer Service Centres.

If the request cannot be accommodated via traditional service routes the staff can pass the request to  Mixed Tenure scheme for consideration.

The request will be assessed by a manager in Housing Services and if approved work carried out.

No charge is made for the service to any resident if the work is approved.
 
To qualify the location of the work has to relate to a common issue.
i.e not be specific to a property and  lie within an area which is mixed tenure in nature, that is to say not have only one tenure type such as owner occupation or indeed council owned.

Re: Cabinet - Thursday 15 April 2021 10am - £40 Brown Bin Charge for Garden waste collection; Mixed Tenure Waste Collection(Free) Scheme taken In House? 2 years, 11 months ago #5

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As well as introducing a charge of £40 for 2021/22 to be levied on all households using Brown Bins for Garden Waste -

Should the Council not also be considering introducing a charge for the Mixed Tenure Service as well as taking it 'in house' ?

Re: Cabinet - Thursday 15 April 2021 10am - £40 Brown Bin Charge for Garden waste collection; Mixed Tenure Waste Collection(Free) Scheme taken In House? 2 years, 11 months ago #6

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£40 charge for Brown Bin Garden Waste Collection

posted on Cllr David MacDonald's facebook page 9/4/2021 -


........I see the council are going ahead with a £40 fee for garden waste uplift , what they mean is an extra £4O onto our council tax !


Author
Cllr David Macdonald - An Independent voice for Eastwood..........

I don't agree with it in the slightest. It's a nominal amount but it is the principle of setting a bad precedent for future things. I'll be bringing a motion to full council for it to be reversed.


..........I Hope your successful in reversing it, there’s many folk in the area who can’t afford the extra £40 ! It seems no explanation for anyone ! Just shocking !
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