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Update on future of waste services in Bridgend county

The new recycling centre in Pyle (Pic: Google Maps)

COUNCIL members in Bridgend have been given updates on plans for the future of waste and recycling services in the county borough, with potential for the council to take over the services after 2026.

The talks came after control over the services changed hands in April 2024, with Plan B Management Solutions Ltd taking over the operation from Kier on a two-year interim basis.

The transfer was approved to give the council time to look at options for how it wants the service to run in the future, with three potential plans presented to members.

These included bringing waste and recycling services back in-house within the council’s control, transferring the service into a local authority trading company, or re-procuring a new external waste services contractor after 2026.

While officers had previously said their preferred option would be to continue to outsource the service, cabinet decided not proceed with the procurement of a new contract after April 2026, asking that further work be done to look at the other models.

Discussions which were held by a scrutiny committee on September 30, saw members given more detail from a consultant over these plans, with a number of pros and cons listed for both ideas.

A report given by officers showed the most expensive option out of the two would be in bringing the service back in-house at a cost of £9.37m a year.

Benefits to this would be the authority would have full control over the service, with more flexibility and no requirements to make a profit moving forward, however there would also be downsides such as higher levels of risk and up-front costs of setting it up.

Additionally, when it came to the local authority trading company model at a cost of £9.02m a year, there were benefits in that the council would have more flexibility with the service, along with the opportunity of growing its commercial customer base.

Downsides were also noted with the move, with the authority taking on higher levels of risk, particularly in areas with IT systems, as well as the costs of setting the service up.

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The report noted because of the tight timescales to “implement and mobilise all options”, there would be an opportunity for an extension of the existing Plan B Management Solutions contract for a further year.

After a lengthy discussion, members of the committee decided to recommend the extension on the current contract, while more information was sought from other authorities who ran similar models of the services.

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