Time to sack Amey and bring the streetcare service back in-house

Liberal Democrats have called for an early end of the council's streetcare contract with Amey PLC. The 15-year contract is due to end on 31st March 2022 and is valued at £5.7m per year.

Amey are contracted to provide street cleaning, grounds maintenance, recycling and refuse collection services.

The call by Jeremy Hilton to end the contract early, came as councillors' email inboxes were flooded with complaints from residents about missed bin collections over the Christmas period. This follows on from a similar problem with bins not being collected last year due to insufficient drivers being employed by Amey. The quality of the street cleaning and grounds maintenance services is also problematic.

The streetcare service was discussed at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 8th January and Jeremy Hilton asked Richard Cook the cabinet member to end the contract early, but he said no.

Previously, Richard Cook has described the contract as the worst he has ever seen. Jeremy Hilton said: "It is time that the Tory administration took action and cancelled the contract because of poor performance." The sooner we reorganise the streetcare services the better. I favour serious consideration to bringing the service back in-house with the council employing and managing staff directly rather than through a third party."