Successful partnership working smooths the way
You may not have noticed the temporary closure of Slyfield community waste recycling centre and waste transfer site in June. That's due in no small part to the successful and detailed collaboration between:
- Guildford Borough Council
- Waverley Borough Council
- their bin contractors
Their meticulous planning and effective communication to people in the borough ensured little or no impact on residents, during major change in waste collection arrangements.
Guildford and Waverley named as two of the UK's top performers in waste collection
Both councils serve a total of 118,000 properties and manage over 13 million collections across both boroughs. We operate:
- alternate weekly collections for bins
- weekly food waste
- fortnightly garden waste
Closure of Slyfield community recycling centre and waste transfer station
Surrey County Council closed these sites from 15 to 30 June for essential improvement works. We usually have a five week notice for major service changes and months of planning go into the process. This time our teams had to work with far less time.
All the waste that would have gone to Slyfield had to be diverted to other sites all over Surrey. This included:
- Epsom
- Chertsey
- Leatherhead
- Shepperton
- Ash Vale
This resulted in longer journey times. Some sites are only able to accept certain materials, which provided extra challenges. For example:
- food waste, which is usually a 10-minute trip to Slyfield, had to travel an hour each way to Shepperton
- other services that usually take waste to Slyfield were also affected:
- street cleaning
- parks
- kerbside waste
New routes across the two boroughs had to be mapped out for the bin crews. New crew members trained, sometimes with incredible coordination.
Lead Councillor for Environment and Climate Change at Guildford Borough Council, Cllr George Potter said:
"I'm immensely proud of how this temporary closure was dealt with by all of the council's staff. Our teams worked closely with all parties involved to ensure little, if any, impact was felt by our businesses and residents. The crews were amazingly flexible, and everyone worked incredibly hard to ensure all waste was properly collected and disposed of or recycled, in line with legal regulations, despite significantly increased journey times to the waste disposal facilities.
"We are committed to delivering first class public service to the communities we serve. This was an excellent example of collaborative working with Waverley Borough Council, Surrey County Council, Suez and additional contractors. From effective communication to operational excellence, our teams supported one another to ensure we still provided an excellent service despite the major challenges we faced."
Waverley Borough Council's Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability, Steve Wiliams, added:
"Our waste teams worked tirelessly to organise the logistics within a short timeframe, not only dealing with the vital communication with residents but also ensuring legislative compliance and operator licences. Crews had to undergo additional training and new procedures were implemented, all of which takes a lot of coordination.
"The partnership working between the councils, as well as with the bin contractors, was crucial to ensure a smooth operation. Waverley's bin contractor Biffa adjusted collection schedules to avoid overlap with Guildford's routes, and customer services and communications teams collaborated so effectively throughout the duration that many residents hardly noticed the disruption and continued to receive efficient waste collection services despite the challenges."
Published: 29 July 2024