Mystery over new bin collection service in Barrow

From Monday, waste and recycling services in Barrow will be taken over by the borough council.

But council chiefs are remaining tight-lipped over where the wagons will be coming from.

FCC Environment won the seven-year contract in 2017 but the firm and the authority agreed to terminate the agreement two years early.

The council said this was due to local government reorganisation, but a leading councillor said ‘it hadn’t been a good relationship’ and ‘mistakes had been made’.

Earlier this year, refuse collectors in the borough took industrial action over pay.

Barrow Borough Council said it will now bring waste, recycling and street cleaning services in-house and residents will not have to do anything differently and continue to place their bin or recycling out on usual days.

However, an attempt by Cumbria Crack to find out the firm that will be used or how it will operate has been knocked back by the authority.

Consultation has been ongoing between Barrow Borough Council and staff at FCC Environment, who will transfer to the authority as part of the service transition.

It is not clear if FCC equipment will be used for the council operation in a new deal or if another operator will be brought in.

A spokesman for Barrow Borough Council said they had no other details and added: “As you can imagine, a process like this is extremely complex and subject to a range of commercial sensitivities.”

In a statement sent out to reassure residents, Ann Thomson, leader of Barrow Borough Council, said: “A huge amount of work has been ongoing between both the council and FCC Environment, our waste and recycling contractor, to prepare for this transition back to a council-run service.

“This is so that the change is as seamless as possible. People won’t need to do anything differently.

“Please put bins and recycling out as normal. The service will simply be operated directly by the council.”

The firm also operates the borough’s Garden Waste Club. Garden waste collection is a non-statutory council service. There will be no change to this when the service is transferred to the council and it will continue to operate as a service open to subscribers in line with a majority of local authorities across the country.

This is so users of the service continue to contribute towards its running costs – and residents who don’t require garden waste collection do not have to pay.