Council Members to Review Waste Collection Progress
Cumberland Council's waste collection service is set to be reviewed by council members next week, who will assess the progress made since the initial recommendations were made in November 2024. The council's place overview and scrutiny committee will meet at Allerdale House in Workington on January 7th to receive an update.
The committee is expected to note the progress on each recommendation, evaluate the project's effectiveness, and provide their own observations and recommendations if necessary. The report highlights a significant development: the executive committee approved an in-house delivery model for waste collection services, following a comprehensive review of all available options.
This decision includes the transfer of Allerdale Waste Services staff to the council under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), facilitating the new collection model. The report mentions that this transfer was successful on January 20, 2025, after a consultation period with the AWS workforce and their union representatives.
The public consultation, which lasted four weeks, gathered valuable feedback on the proposed operating model. The results revealed interesting insights: 58.5% of responses came from the Allerdale area, and 63.5% of respondents had one to two people in their household. A significant 58.25% of respondents emphasized the importance of a consistent service, while 92.62% recognized the value of recycling. Interestingly, 40.4% of respondents disagreed with the proposed fortnightly collection frequency in Allerdale.
The consultation also addressed specific aspects of the model. 53.4% of respondents supported the idea of changing recycling bins from boxes to Carlilse bins, while 48.6% agreed with the proposed increase in fortnightly paper and card collections. Additionally, 91.13% of respondents had a garden, and 64.1% were in favor of a seasonal garden waste collection from March to November. However, 42% of respondents were open to the idea of a charge for additional garden waste bins.
As a result of the consultation, the executive committee recommended allocating £2,400,000 to the capital program for purchasing additional waste receptacles for general waste and recycling. Furthermore, they suggested adding £12,080,000 to the capital program for the replacement waste collection fleet between 2025 and 2032. Both recommendations were approved in January.
