THE leader of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has demanded a waste management company to be “completely honest” about their level of service in the area after getting “deeply frustrated” about the ongoing issues. 

Cllr Simon Bound has sought a resolution to the ongoing problems with Serco, saying it should demonstrate to the council on how they are planning to do it.

The waste management service has been facing problems in Basingstoke for a number of months due to various reasons including Covid-related staff shortage.

READ MORE: Basingstoke bin collections 'running behind' due to 'staff shortages'

Serco was awarded a £44million eight-year joint contract in 2018 with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and Hart District Council, replacing previous contractor Veolia. The contract is valued at £5.5million a year.

Cllr Bound said all the councillors are concerned about the level of service delivered by Serco.

“We're all deeply frustrated,” he said. “They've made us quite a lot of promises when it comes to recovery. We probably know from up and down the country or our neighbours who are struggling with their wastes contracts. But ultimately Serco is contracted to deliver us, as taxpayers, a level of service which they're not delivering.

“We want to know whether they've got a recovery plan in place when it comes to recruiting people and improving the service back to where it should be. I think it's beholden on all of us as public servants to make sure the service that they've promised taxpayers is delivered.

“Serco should be completely honest with all members of the council, what the level of service is that they're currently delivering, where the gaps are, what they're doing about improving it and when will we see the services back to where it should be.”

The borough council is set to hear from Serco next week in a scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, July 19.

Members of the council will receive a presentation from Serco outlining the issues they have recently experienced and what actions they have and will be taking to address these.

The presentation will provide an opportunity for committee members to ask questions and make recommendations.

Cllr Bound said: “The management of the services is done by our officers and our chief executive and they give a daily update on how the service is doing, how many rounds are behind and what the level of individual missed bins are.

“This is why the recovery plan becomes so important because we need a level of sight between what the problems are and what Serco are doing to resolve them. I believe it is getting better, but it's not where any of us would want it to be.

“We're looking at absolutely every lever that we can use to encourage and enable Serco to deliver on the service.”

Cllr Bound also said the council will look at imposing penalties because of the poor services.

SEE ALSO: Chris Packham urges residents to support Greener Basingstoke

“We pay the money and we should always look at penalties because quite rightly, residents will sit there and go – ‘well, I'm paying for a service and the council is paying for service on my behalf. I want to know why somebody is not delivering it. And what are you doing when we plan contracts to ensure that should something go wrong?’

“It's incredibly disappointing. As a local authority we agreed to add additional finance as there was additional tonnage coming in through the waste contract. The council did what was asked of us as a partner, but Serco is not delivering on their part of the deal.”

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