MVO Article
No Drama In Durham
When its "full service" contractor suddenly went bankrupt, the recycling programme in Durham faced being paralysed for weeks - months even - while an alternative was found. Instead, what followed is an object lesson in crisis management and co-operation, as Malcolm Bates reports
Lesson one: don't be a namby-pamby southerner. Or, if you are, be prepared to use some northern grit and determination. Lesson two: don't be surprised if the big names in the business let you down, or can't deliver. Keep looking. Lesson three: use some lateral thinking, like maybe one of the smaller, harder working "little guys" could help?
And lesson four? Well, it might help if your name was, oh, I don't know, "John Green", for example, and you already had half-a-lifetime in transport management, weren't afraid of rolling up your shirt sleeves and getting your hands dirty… and you had the skill to spot the difference between a bullsh*tter and the real deal from across the other side of the yard? Yeah, that would help.
But, as John Green himself explained over an early morning brew at Dragonville depot, even then the scale of the problem facing Durham City Council - and the other six recently merged authorities in the area (such as Chester-le-Street and Easington) - was of biblical proportions.
For legal reasons I'm not allowed to tell you the name of the "colourful", now bankrupt contractor, or expand on how clearly unhelpful corporate behaviour led to a snap withdrawal of the service. But from what I've discovered during my research, either the motives that resulted in the good people of Durham being left in the lurch were as a result of a plan to extract as much cash out of the contract before shutting-up shop, or it was all a result of gross incompetence - take your pick.
Either way, such situations do great damage when it comes to encouraging the public sector to enter into "partnerships" with private enterprise, especially when it's in areas such as recycled materials collections, which will require public co-operation in order to work.
Whether council policy-makers in town halls across the land will ever learn from the mistakes of others is, perhaps, worth an article on its own. My own experience suggests this is not always the case. Indeed, even while I was putting together this article, my local BBC news channel was suggesting that following perceived shortfalls in government funding, Tory-run Essex County Council had commissioned "a secret report" to explore significantly higher levels of "outsourcing" (ie, sacking direct labour) in an effort to divert money that could be spent on other things. Like compiling more secret reports, perhaps?
But while such cynical party politically-motivated manoeuvres - and secrecy - are unfortunately an intrinsic part of the British system of local government, what we have here is something else, because out of a disaster came a real life "good news story".
Like I said earlier, what we have here is an object lesson to every council seeking to cut levels of service or lay-off staff by "outsourcing" on cost savings alone… you do so at your peril. It illustrates beautifully that if a deal looks too good to be true - ie, the contract price is "cheap" - there's likely to be a very good reason it is too good to be true!
Left In The Lurch
In April this year it was quite clear that the appointed contractor engaged by Durham City and the six neighbouring district councils was not performing as well as expected. A number of local suppliers were refusing to provide parts and services to keep the contractor's fleet on the road and equipment failures due to a combination of bad luck, lack of forward planning and under provision of kit to cover downtime, were resulting in collection crews working well into the evening in order to catch up.
But rumours are one thing, contractual procedures are something else, and it's often very hard for public sector management to get to a position where "time" is called. Unfortunately, in this case, it was the contractor who pulled the plug first - with immediate effect - leaving the recycling service in the whole Durham area in the lurch.
So how long would it take you to source an entire new fleet of specialist vehicles, such as kerbside collection recyclers? Even locating a fleet of standard RCVs and getting them assembled on-site to start work could take a week, surely? And, as if that wasn't hard enough, where do you get suitably trained crews? Those employed by the previous contractor hadn't even been officially notified that they were redundant. Trying to find another full service contractor in the short-term - aside from being a potentially risky decision - could well have taken six months or more to put together. So what would you do next?
What John Green and his team did was take a sharp intake of breath and hit the phones. This situation was not the Council's fault, but it certainly wasn't the local residents' fault, either. A solution was needed fast. Any solution.
Mindful that any break in the collection of recyclables could damage the whole mindset of local residents and unpick all the work done to date (Durham currently claims a modest 30 percent recycling ratio, so there was no desire to go backwards), it was quite clear that the priority was to get a fleet of recycling wagons back out on the streets ASAP, as there was still a long way to go.
Phone A Friend?
The staff working for the defunct contractor were informed that there might be new jobs available but, even in this respect, re-employing them as direct Council labour required every applicant to undergo an assessment and training programme before a permanent job could be offered. And, as a team of 100 was needed to run the service, the size of this problem can be gauged - in addition to the 20-plus vehicles needed because the previous contractor's fleet had been seized by the finance company and removed!
"I called every specialist hirer I could think of," John explains. "Some had what we needed, but couldn't deliver in time. Others had vehicles available, but they weren't ideally suited." But what really got his blood boiling was the attitude of certain "big names" in the hire business. Knowing on the industry grapevine that things had gone pear-shaped, hire prices mysteriously started to go up, as negotiations proceeded, which is a bit naughty.
One solution would have been for John and his team to cave in and recommend to councillors that as this is the natural downside to embracing a full service contractor, rather that using an in-house solution over which some control could be exercised. The only course of action was to pay up but they decided to dig deeper. When you've been in the business as long as John Green, chances are you've got a list of contacts worth their weight in gold. Contacts like Andy Collett, at Collett Transport Services (CTS), for example.
Yes, I know what you're thinking: "How could a modest operation based down in rural Gloucestershire possibly be of any use on a major public sector contract over 250 miles away in t'north?" It's a long shot, surely?
Medals All Round
Call it what you like. The simple fact is that with 24 hours, CTS had not only located all the vehicles needed to run the service but, overnight, had started to deliver them to Durham. By the next morning, they were being checked over - so as soon as the newly employed drivers had been signed on, they could be ready to roll. John is a bit shy going on the record as to how it all got pulled together but, either way, he and his team still deserve a medal in my book.
And CTS? Well, having met up with John Green and CTS sales manager Richard Marsh at Durham City Council's Damson Way depot, all I can say is, a couple of months into the new arrangement things couldn't have worked out any better if someone in a suit had planned it over a 12-month period! OK, several of the units are far from being in their "first flush of youth" - as a Maclift-bodied Seddon Atkinson testifies - but they're all clean and tidy. Plus, there is goodwill all round as certain other contract hirers - such as Noblet and Riverside - have also helped out in neighbouring authorities. But those who have benefited most are the staff who have their jobs back, and the local residents who have their service back.
So what next? The current arrangement runs to the expiry of the original contract, which is soon. Will the excellent work put in by CTS over the last few months be taken into account when the councillors in the Durham area look to a long-term solution? Will the combination of direct labour force and contract hired vehicles, with service back-up provided by the Council's own workshops staff, now be seen as the "safest", most cost-effective solution?
It would be nice to think so. But when I visited Durham, the managers of seven existing council depots were awaiting news of "rationalisation plans" that will ultimately see several posts reduced to five, and that includes John Green and his team. Surely keeping the maintenance of 20-plus vehicles in-house would be very useful in the current climate?
"The new unitary is now in the process of developing a modern waste strategy which will map out how waste in County Durham will be collected, recycled and treated in the future. That is expected to be complete next year and will put the county at the forefront of sustainable waste management solutions," said Jeff Riddell, head of policy planning and performance in neighbourhoods.
Whatever the future brings, it has to be said that CTS can claim to genuinely match its corporate mission statement of "Being big enough to cope, but small enough to care". But what about the new combined authority in Durham? Maybe Council chiefs should consider a new mission statement of their own, based on recent experiences? How about "Durham Recycling. When it hits the fan, the in-house team won't let you down"?
A touch "edgy" perhaps, but a pont well made.
Contacts
Andy Collett: +44 (0)7976 577931
