Rochdale Council advertising for consultants to help deliver new waste collections

Recycling collection

Rochdale Council is advertising for consultants to help them deliver their new waste collection service.

It is understood that as well as helping to deliver the new service, the consultants will also run a doorstep engagement scheme.

A spokesperson for Keep Rochdale Tidy, the group behind a campaign to stop the plans going ahead, said: “It is appalling that when Rochdale Council is trying to save money they keep the use of expensive outside consultants hidden. They are quite notorious now for wasting millions on them and this appears to be just another example.

“Also it is a flagrant attempt to ignore the residents of Rochdale in the most non-democratic way possible and it looks like they are going to rail-road this through at all cost.

"The public consultation is nothing but a farce and is virtually none existent. What should have happened is every household should have been written to and a reply form sent out so people could truly have their say.”

Martin Taylor, Head of Environmental Management at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “As we have detailed in the cabinet report and our online FAQ page, the proposed new service will cost £690,000 to implement successfully and will provide Rochdale with cost savings of up to £1 million a year, which can help ease the saving requirements of other essential public services.

“Of that £132,000 will be spent on re-routing of collection rounds, additional vehicle and staffing costs, £180,000 on publicity and education communications and £378,000 on food caddies, caddy liners and household distribution. Due to the short time-scales and large number of staff required, it is not possible to deliver this new service change entirely in-house.

“While the implementation costs are substantial, these need to be seen in the context of the very significant ongoing savings from the subsequent increase in recycling which we expect to achieve which is estimated to be £1 million per annum. This means the investment in delivering the new service will have paid for itself in just eight months.”