South Norfolk District Council claims to have saved around £100,000 by taking over street cleaning from its contractors.
The authority’s cabinet made the decision after advertising across Europe for bidders, and receiving offers that were between £100,000 and £200,000 more than the council estimated the service should cost. The decision brings to an end 10 years of outsourcing street cleaning for the district’s 115,000 residents. According to the council, the decision to bring the service in-house means more vehicles and staff on street cleaning duty, more resources to fight fly-tipping, and new equipment to tackle anti-social behaviour such as graffiti vandalism.
Philip Waltham, cabinet member for the environment, said: ‘It was the level of service we could offer that swung the final decision and led us to consider setting up our own in-house team, with a good saving as a bonus for all our residents.’