North Somerset Commences Unique Partnership with Glendale

North Somerset Council has commenced its ground-breaking £2 million p.a. contract with Glendale delivering street and beach cleansing, grounds maintenance and arboriculture services across the district.

The contract will, for the first time, see one company delivering all services, in turn improving response times, removing historical boundaries and streamlining communication, paperwork and overheads.

There are two unique elements to this contract.  The first is Glendale’s commitment to landfill diversion by recycling and recovering approximately 3,000 tonnes of waste from street sweeping, beach clearance and litter collection.  A local recycling centre will be developed within the first two months to assist with the segregation and diversion of waste.

Working with another Glendale business, Glendale Recycling, this project is expected to make a saving of £1 million over the life of the contract, along with diverting a large proportion of waste which was previously sent straight to landfill.

Glendale will recover sweepings, green and beach waste to their state-of-the-art recycling centre at Exeter where they will process these waste streams through an MBT process agreed with the Environment Agency.  Source segregation of litter will produce additional diversion with a change in the collection method being introduced and compartmented vehicles being utilised for the collection of waste and on-site processing of fly tipping.

Tree surgery waste will be processed into chip for biomass and logs for resale to the local community through a partnership with a local CIC, Somerset Wood Recycling.

The second unique element is that the contract is purely resource based, which sees Glendale offering the council a blueprint for future local authority outsourcing.  North Somerset Council has specified the resources they require and has the ability to draw on these resources and divert them to other duties when needed, such as flooding, emergencies or events.  This allows Glendale to provide an unrivalled, flexible service whilst demonstrating value for money and a true partnership solution.

A significant investment in a brand new fleet of Johnston VT650s and CX201s, Farid Minimatic RCV, Barber Surf Rake, Karcher washing equipment and bespoke Ford Transits for the street cleansing services are being utilised.

The startup phase of the contract was well managed with weekly joint meetings between both parties to smooth the transfer and ensure that startup milestones were achieved through joint working and problem-solving.  Starting on a Bank Holiday Monday, all staff were fully operational within one hour, with a seamless handover achieved and minimal disruption to the quality of the public spaces in the district.

Glendale is able to offer all services to the council through four of their companies.  Glendale Grounds Management will oversee the service delivery for streets and parks, Glendale Countryside will deliver arboriculture services, Glendale Recycling will manage waste diversion and Glendale’s Coblands Nurseries will supply bedding plants and shrubs.

Mark MacGregor, Head of Streets and Open Spaces, said: “We have designed a contract that will continue to provide a high level of service to all our residents, despite the massive savings we are having to make.

“Through this contract, we have managed to retain our core operation at the existing levels and will be more efficient in dealing with other tasks.  What’s more, this contract will also deliver new annual savings of over £1 million and divert thousands of tonnes of rubbish away from landfill.  We have used the operational knowledge we had gained over two decades of commissioning these services to shape this contract and it is a model that other councils could adopt as it creates efficiencies and saves money without impacting on performance.”

Glendale’s regional director for the South West and South Wales, Terry Doyle, commented: “Glendale’s ability to offer individual specialist services through one unique source means that the council benefits from economies of scale whilst ensuring that all services are managed by specialist managers, maintaining and improving quality and technical ability through all levels of the service.

“Our fresh approach to delivering services means that new processes and innovative working practices can produce significant financial savings to our clients whilst ensuring quality on the ground is maintained.  Our commitment to the environment on this contract is second to none.”