And, the DWP’s joint committee met today (11 September) to comment on a proposal to discuss the logistics of this, which could see a temporary one year contract in place with Dorset Council, before the new unitary authority takes over collections.
The move comes as a result of a shake-up involving Dorset county council and other authorities in the area, which will see the current nine councils reduced to two unitary authorities. This will involve Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) making up one council and East Dorset, North Dorset, Purbeck, West Dorset and Weymouth & Portland making up the other.
Currently, Bournemouth and Poole are unitary authorities, providing all council services for residents in their area. Dorset County Council provides some council services for residents across the whole of the rest of the county, including education, highways, libraries and social services.
The shake-up will see the DWP’s work becoming an “executive function” of the new Dorset council, but as Christchurch will fall outside of the Dorset boundaries, plans need to be drawn up for its waste collection.
The DWP currently covers Christchurch as part of its seven councils but both Bournemouth and Poole have separate waste collections.
Executive function
A spokesperson for the DWP explained to letsrecycle.com, that despite the partnership “ceasing to exist” all staff jobs will be safe, and reiterated that the focus is currently on ensuring collections continue as normal from next year.
The spokeperson said: “Although ‘ceasing to exist’ sounds like the partnership will completely disappear, it isn’t quite the case. The partnership will become an executive function of the council and will also be governed by them.
“Our aim at the moment is to make sure that there is no disruption to services, which is why we have put forward a suggestion today for Dorset Council to continue Christchurch collections for a year while we plan how to transfer over to BCP. We are not sure at this point if the name will continue to be on lorries, for example, or other future contracts, as our focus is just on avoiding disruption and once that is sorted, the finer details can be organised.”
Rejections
The report before the committee today, which will go before the executive at a later date, explained that alternative arrangements for the delivery of waste in Christchurch “have been considered and rejected” on the basis of the limited time available to put deliverable changes in place.
This includes direct delivery of service from 1 April 2019 by BCP council, or a contractual arrangement between BCP and Dorset Council.
“Specific elements of service could be contracted out but as services in DWP are fully integrated there would be a significant risk to service delivery,” the report explains.
Staff
Today’s report also outlined that a report is currently being considered by the Dorset and BCP Programmes recommending that the Dorset and BCP shadow executives both approve a delegation of function by agreement.
This agreement would see Dorset Council to continue to provide services in Christchurch and “transfer DWP staff and assets serving Christchurch to Dorset Council instead of BCP, for the period of the agreement.”
“The legal agreement will also need to cover governance, funding, duration of agreement, staffing and assets, termination”, the report explained.
Process
There are currently three different collection systems in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole – Christchurch currently using the Recycle for Dorset service delivered by the DWP.
At the moment, it is understood that contracts in place for the onward treatment of waste will remain the same for the time-being.
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