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'Enterprise collection ‘fiasco’ in Ealing continues 26 July 2012Councils Waste Management By Amy NorthThe ‘fiasco’ with recycling collections in the London borough of Ealing is continuing almost four months after waste contractor Enterprise took over the service.As a result of the on-going problems, council minutes from July 17 reveal that a senior manager at Enterprise has been ‘relieved of his duties’. In addition, some councillors have called for the resignation of the portfolio holder as he is “ultimately responsible for the contract and the resultant fiasco”.Enterprise has been collecting some dry recyclables commingled in a bid to catch up on missed collections. Enterprise took over the service from previous contractor May Gurney on April 1 2012, after it was awarded the £300 million 15-year collection contract in July 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).Under the deal Enterprise was meant to operate a kerbside sort system for the collection of dry recyclables and food waste but following ‘teething problems’ it had to move to a commingled system to work through the backlog of missed collections.However, nearly four months later, despite some improvements to the service, some materials are still being collected commingled.Commenting on the service, a spokeswoman for Ealing council, said: “We are still using two types of collections for recycling. On some vehicles we can sort out the recycling and put it into the various different compartments. While we wait for the other vehicles to arrive we are doing commingled collections as well. About half of the collections are being sorted at the kerbside and we should have the new vehicles operating within a couple of months.”The commingled material is being sent to Ideal Waste Paper’s materials recycling facility (MRF) in Kent for sorting.StandardsCouncillor Bassam Mahfouz, portfolio holder for transport and environment, told letsrecycle.com today (July 26) that the kerbside sort vehicles were being rolled out on a week-by-week basis to avoid further problems and that Enterprise was on track to have all of them delivered by the end of this month. He said commingled collections would only be used after this date to “mop up” any missed collections.However Cllr Mahfouz explained that at present the number of missed collections was still above the average level and street cleaning was still below par.He said: “The number of missed collections has come down dramatically. It is still above where we want it to be. It is something we are still working on to make sure it is brought down to a minimal figure."We have set really high standards and we expect and we want Enterprise to be able to achieve them. That’s what they have signed up to under their contract and we expect nothing less."- Councillor Bassam Mahfouz“We have set really high standards and we expect and we want Enterprise to be able to achieve them. That’s what they have signed up to under their contract and we expect nothing less. Even though they have come miles we will continue to push them as quickly as possible to get to the standards that we have set and we have seen in the early months of the year. This is key and critical to our residents.”OppositionHowever not all are convinced that rolling out the remaining kerbside sort vehicles will fully resolve the problem. Councillor Phil Taylor, conservative shadow cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “The vehicles will be in by the end of July and the commingling should end then however it’s not clear that the new vehicles will work as I have heard they are having problems with them.“It [commingling]will certainly still being happening on a large scale in July and also in August.”Cllr Taylor said it would be “wrong” to say the service was not improving but said “certainly the start went in the wrong direction very quickly.”Enterprise seems reluctant to comment on the on-going problems and when contacted by letsrecycle.com a spokeswoman for Enterprise said: “We have no further comments to make or updates to give on this matter.”ServiceEnterprise has also experienced problems with its contract with Northampton borough and Daventry district councils (see letsrecycle.com story). Following continuing complaints by residents Enterprise faces penalties of up to £250,000, which will take the form of financial deductions from the contractual payments paid by the councils.Related LinksEaling councilEnterpriseCllr Mahfouz explained that a year down the line he didn’t want Ealing to be in the same position. He said: “What we don’t want is to be a year down the line and then fining them. We are getting the guys to go down to those councils to learn what they did right and wrong.”However he acknowledged that Enterprise had delivered “decent contracts” elsewhere, such as Manchester and Liverpool, and said he expected the company to deliver a similar level of service in Ealing.
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