Countdown to new bin collection service for Blackpool

A fleet of 17 new bin wagons are due to be delivered to the council in May at a cost of £4.8m, with the new waste collection service scheduled to begin on July 1.

The council revealed plans last year to take the town's domestic waste contract back in-house after it was out-sourced in 2005 to a private company.

That contract, currently held by Veolia, finishes at the end of this month.

Taking the service back in-house will save the council £750,000 a year.

A total of 45 workers will transfer from Veolia to a new arms length company set up by the council to run waste collections.

A new computer system is also being installed which will enable real-time updates to be provided directly to the vehicles.

The council hopes the new waste collection operation will enable the service to be more flexible and to respond better to the needs of residents.

Minutes from a recent meeting of the council's shareholder's advisory board say "a successful transition process should result in no obvious change in service".

It is added that "reports of levels of satisfaction with the current service provider were mixed", and changing to an arms-length company would help to address "areas of existing complaints such as litter picking resulting from split bin bags."

The contract was awarded to Onyx in April 2005 at a time when the government was encouraging out-sourcing by councils, and was extended in 2010. Onyx later became part of Veolia.

At that time households in Blackpool were issued with three wheelie bins for general waste, garden waste and recyclable waste. as well as a bag for waste paper.

The service changed to the current alternate weekly collections with recyclables collected one week and non-recyclables the next week.