Political Viewpoint

BY Coun Kevin Buck, Prittlewell Ward. City Council Cabinet member for Highways, Transport & Parking

 

“THOSE who fail to learn from history, are destined to repeat it.”

Infamous words of wisdom we are all familiar with? It may come as a surprise to learn then, that history is repeating itself again in Southend?

The last time the City’s waste contract service was renegotiated to the 4-day service, we had a Labour, Lib Dem & Independent coalition in power. They made such a fiasco of it, it was undoubtedly instrumental in them losing the administration in May 2016.

The Southend conservatives then took over, with the inevitability of sorting out the aftermath.

Fast forward 9 years and we find history repeating itself once more. From May 2019 until May 2023, there was a Labour, Lib Dem & Independent coalition running Southend. The current waste contract renegotiations and any final outcome, are as a direct result of their tardy policies and their failure to manage an effective contract renewal process in a timely manner. I’ll explain why!

In 2020, the coalition knew that the current waste contract break clause had been activated, meaning it would end sometime in 2023. It takes at least 2 years to draft and issue a tender specification, procure a supplier and mobilise the frontline service. This means that they needed to act swiftly and at the very latest, by early 2021, to start to procure a new waste contract provider for mobilisation in 2023.

They failed to do so and a sustained period of inexcusable political paralysis in power ensued. Some form of a tender spec was not in draft until 2022 and potential market engagement started around early 2023, months away from the current contract ending. This was of course, far too late and a contract extension with Veolia, costing £m’s, had to be agreed.

Internal council meetings were held to discuss the new service to be offered. As has previously been reported in the local media, I was a past member of the senior management team at Veolia. At that time, I and my team worked on aspects of the Southend contract.

However, after nearly 25 years of service, I retired from Veolia in 2015 to pursue new professional and personal interests. One was becoming a Councillor in 2018.

So armed with this detailed knowledge, it enabled me to have an almost unique insight in to both the service offering of a supplier and now the councils’ perspective as a buyer. Due to the elapsed time period, the councils’ legal team have advised that I had none then, and continue to have, no conflict of interest in this matter, particularly as I am not the portfolio holder.

During the draft tender process, the Conservative group made it very clear to the coalition that weekly collections should be a mandatory part of the procurement process. The collation rejected this, ignored any advice I gave and indeed, voted against the proposals in meetings. Instead, they chose to ‘let the market decide’ what Southend needed. This in my opinion, was one of their many mistakes when procuring the new waste & recycling service.

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