Mid Sussex District Council to begin negotiations to extend waste management contract by five years

If all goes as planned, the contract – which expires on July 31 2028 – will continue to July 31 2033.

By then, the district council will have been dissolved, as part of the local government reorganisation, and been replaced by a much larger unitary authority – the details of which have yet to be decided.

Chris Hobbs, cabinet member for leisure & customer services, stressed the need to keep things going ‘while the Government ponders its decision’.

He added: “Our waste contract is a substantial arrangement that this council manages on behalf of our residents.

“Clearly we’re not going to be in a position of ‘leave it to the next guys’, because vesting day of the new council will bring very little immediate change.”

Mid Sussex is the only council in West Sussex to run the 1-2-3 waste collection service – food waste each week, recycling every two weeks, general waste every three weeks.

Mr Hobbs said: “What the future of this service holds and looks like is a decision for the new authority. But, whatever it is made up of, we need to protect today the service for our residents and for the next few years.

“Serco have been a good partner to the council for many years and most recently through that service reorganisation, the introduction of food waste collections, in-cab technologies and so on.”

Just because negotiations will be held about the contract, it is not a guarantee that the extension will go ahead.

One issue which will no doubt be discussed at length is the age of Serco’s fleet. Many of the vehicles are already eight years old and will be ten years old when the contract ends.

Mr Hobbs said: “These vehicles have a hard life and it is key that they remain on the road and running in order for us to deliver that ongoing service. Contract renewal allows us and Serco to work together to source new vehicles with a surety that there is a use for them.”

Gary Marsh (Con, Ardingly, Balcombe & Turners Hill), leader of the opposition, praised Serco for doing ‘a superb job’ that had ‘exceeded expectations’, especially when it came to the introduction of food waste collections.

He added: “Yes, there’s still teething problems which are reported and dealt with as we get through them. But I think that, on the whole, it’s an extremely good service.”

An update on the negotiations will be presented to the cabinet in September.