RESOLVED that, following consideration of the legal advice and options available (in report B.1) and following its assessment and analysis of the risks and their mitigations, and the contents of that report (B.1), Cabinet formally -

(a)  notes the extensive work undertaken on the procurement process so far, both by Officers and external consultants following the Core Principles adopted in July 2024 and subsequent decisions;

(b)  acknowledges the impact of Greater Essex being part of the Government’s Priority Programme and responding to Local Government Reorganisation, the Council must reassess its position with regards to the duration of the contract term;

(c)  acknowledges that, in addition to (b) above, the information received through the current procurement exercise to date would place the Council in the position of not being able to reasonably afford the cost should it decide to continue with the service as currently specified;

(d)  agrees that, in addition to (b) and (c) above, to balance associated risks, uncertainty and value for money alongside affordability, the option to purchase the vehicle fleet and the risk sharing option in respect of DMR will no longer be considered;

(e)  commits to ensuring it continues to fulfil its statutory duties and to provide a Waste Collection service beyond the ending of the current contract in March 2026 and complying with the additional requirements of the Environment Act 2021 from April 2026;

(f)   subject to (b) to (e) above and having considered the legal advice and options available (in Part B) and following its assessment of the advice, analysis of the risks and their mitigations, and the contents of this report, agrees to continue with the existing procurement process but with amendments to the contract length and specification (Option 1) based on the following key principles:

(i)              the contract term will be reduced to 3 years with an option for an extension period of 2 years based upon responding to the risk and uncertainties of LGR;

(ii)             a reduction in the service specification to ensure affordability and comply with our statutory duty to provide a waste collection service and street cleaning service;

(iii)            the Council will not take any financial risk on the value of DMR material collected (Service Delivery Option A); and

(iv)            the Council will not fund the up-front purchase of any vehicle fleet (Vehicle Funding Option B).

(g)  in addition to (e) and (f) above, a revised set of Core Specification Principles, as set out in Table 3 of the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.1), will form the basis of the revised detailed contract specification;

(h)  authorises the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery), in consultation with the Leader of the Council, the Portfolio Holder for Environment & ICT, the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Community Safety, the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer, following the dialogue stage, to determine the detailed revised service specification for the Invitation to Submit Final Tenders stage, ensuring the principles set out in (f) above are adhered to;

(i)    approves that an additional budget of £100k be made available for consultancy support funded via the Corporate Investment Fund, taking the total budget to date to £0.400m; and

(j)    acknowledges that a further report will be presented to Cabinet following the evaluation of final tenders, which will include proposed financial / budget adjustments as necessary.