£14million to cut the grass
Report by Simon Angear , Content Editor
Monday, July 23, 2012
4:58 PM
WANTED: A firm to take responsibility for cutting grass, trimming trees and cleaning streets across North Somerset. The salary? £14million.
That’s how much North Somerset Council is preparing to pay the winning bidder for a seven-year contract to take on these jobs across the district.
Until now, the authority has operated separate departments for grounds-keeping, tree management and street-cleaning.
However, that is about to change. The council needs to find £47million of savings over four years, and these departments are expected to shoulder around £735,000 of those cuts.
That amounts to 30 per cent of their allocation, so the council is hoping to merge the three departments into a single out-sourced arrangement.
A spokesman said: “The new contract combines grounds, trees and street cleansing into one contract, instead of three separate highly specialised ones previously operating.
“This will help to make the contract more efficient by reducing overheads; create economies of scale; attract the best rates from potential contractors, as it’s a bigger contract covering all the different work areas; and avoid duplicating tasks.
“The council will continue to maintain core services, so the grass will continue to be cut and trees will still be managed to keep any risk of harm to residents and their property to a minimum.
“It will also maintain the high level of street cleansing in town centres and busier areas such as Weston seafront.”
The changes will mean that work is carried out on a needs basis, rather than by routine. That will mean responding to reports from the public about where work is required.
Companies have now been invited to tender for the contract, and have until the end of August to submit their proposals.
Bids will then be scrutinised by council officers, with a report going to full council in November, and a decision expected in December.
Once the decision has been made and contacts signed, the new firm will take over responsibilities for the works from April next year.
More news
- £10million business school gets green light
- 800 cannabis plants seized in raid
- Cash to help victims of abuse and yob behaviour
- Sports shop bucks trend of store closures
- Cancer support group launched
- Inspiration from international illustrator
- Strawberry Line schools
- Charity knits itself a fortune
- Council sends dog fouling message
- Unusual visitors flock to Somerset
Online Publications
Click here to see our online publications
This content requires Adobe Flash Player
5 comments
Drove thru Chippenham & Devizes on the weekend and their Parks & Open spaces put ours to shame. Unfortunately, all to often the council blame these contractors for poor service when a call is made with any complaints instead of monitoring them themselves, so until weve got peolple happy to get up off their butts and see what we are getting for our money, we will not be any better off!
Report this comment
TrueWestonian
Monday, July 23, 2012
Good idea if it saves paying three firms for the same work.
Report this comment
T-Bone
Monday, July 23, 2012
The article states that £735,000 is 30% of £47 million who did the maths or is it just bad reporting. ?
Report this comment
bill
Monday, July 23, 2012
this could be great excuse for the clowncil to build on the large areas of greens --- CLARENCE GREEN DRIVE _ AsHCOMBE AVENUE - it won't be long before they tarmac over the beach to save on sweeping the beach each day.
Report this comment
bill
Monday, July 23, 2012
this could be great excuse for the clowncil to build on the large areas of greens --- CLARENCE GREEN DRIVE _ AsHCOMBE AVENUE - it won't be long before they tarmac over the beach to save on sweeping the beach each day.
Report this comment
bill
Monday, July 23, 2012