Allerdale residents have seen their household waste and recycling collections disrupted for more than three months amid problems with a new contract.

Here we outline how the new contract came about and the stages involved in the process of awarding it:

May 10, 2017: Allerdale council’s Labour-led executive committee agrees to maintain its existing approach of using a contractor to collect waste and recycling when the existing contract comes to an end on March 31, 2019. FCC Environment has collected waste in the borough since April 2003.

August 2017: The council seeks expressions of interest from companies interesting in taking on the new waste and recycling collection contract.

February-March 2018: The council holds talks with bidding companies to facilitate the preparations of their detailed bids for the contract.

April 13, 2018: Bidding companies submit detailed solution submissions.

July 20, 2018: The council closes dialogue with bidders and issues a call for final tenders.

September 10, 2018: Final deadline for companies to submit tenders for the contract. FCC Environment is the only company to submit a tender.

September 17, 2018: Following a review, the council’s overview and scrutiny committee concludes that “the process has delivered a comprehensive and robust procurement for these services and the overview and scrutiny committee can commend the process to executive as delivering a robust result”. The review covered the process, not the contract itself.

October 17, 2018: Allerdale council’s Labour-led executive committee awards the eight-year, £25 million waste and recycling collection contract to FCC Environment, the same firm that has collected waste in the borough since April 2003.

April 1, 2019: The new contract comes into force.

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