Improvements to street cleaning and waste collection services

Update for Residents, February 2025

As we approach the launch of Merton’s new and improved street cleaning and waste collection services in April 2025, we wanted to keep residents informed on the progress and key changes.

The new service, which has been designed with resident feedback at its core, will bring a range of improvements. We’ve listened to your concerns and have acted. One of the most significant changes is that street cleaning will be managed directly by the council, ensuring greater control and the ability to respond more quickly to issues. This means cleaner streets for everyone, with every residential street cleaned at least once a week, and town centres receiving even more frequent attention.

In addition, a rapid response team will be introduced to deal with any issues that arise swiftly, while a dedicated graffiti removal service will help maintain the appearance of our neighbourhoods. These changes reflect our commitment to providing services that meet the needs of residents.

Waste collection, including recycling, will continue to be managed by Veolia under a new contract, ensuring that improvements continue where needed. After a successful pilot, the community pop-up tip will become a permanent fixture, available six times a year to help combat fly-tipping. We’re also expanding bin collections on larger estates, ensuring that the service is more responsive to local needs.

Next year, we’ll introduce food waste collections for flats above shops and commercial properties that subscribe to our service. We’re committed to reducing waste and improving recycling across Merton.

These updates will come into effect from April 2025, and to make the transition as smooth as possible, we want to reassure you that the dates of your collections will remain the same.

Thank you for your continued support as we work to improve these vital services for Merton’s communities.

Update for residents, February 2023

Following a decision in October 2022 not to renew our existing contract with Veolia ES (UK) Ltd for street cleaning and bin collections across the borough, we wanted to ensure residents are up to date with progress.

On Monday 20 February 2023 the council’s Cabinet decided that work would commence on building an in-house function to start in April 2025, after determining that the council needed “full control and flexibility” over service delivery in the future.

Bin collections will continue to be contracted out, with a new supplier contract starting in 2025 at the same time as the new street-cleaning service.

Watch Councillor Ross Garrod, Leader of Merton Council and Councillor Natasha Irons, Member for Local Environment, Green Spaces and Climate Change explain the street-cleaning and waste collection decision

Timeline

• March 2023: The council will start two processes – one to start building our inhouse street-cleaning service, and another to begin procurement of a new bin collection contract.
• April 2025: New services will start, taking over from the current Veolia ES (UK) Ltd contract.

Consultation with residents

The decision follows a six-week consultation with residents on the future of waste services in October 2022, and a subsequent analysis of different models for delivering street cleaning and bin collection services.

The consultation showed that overall, satisfaction with bin collections is increasing, and people are generally happy with the service they get. However, satisfaction with street cleaning has declined consistently since the contract was put in place.

Improvement to services

Working with Veolia, we’ve made a lot of improvements over the past year – including introduction of overnight patrols and investing in new street sweeping vehicles to build our resource. But we want to go further, and our new service delivery model will allow us to do that.

Links

• Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel Monday 13 February 2023
• News: London Borough of Merton proposes bringing street-cleaning back in-house, 6 February 2023

Update for residents, October 2022

On 10 October 2022, Merton Council’s Cabinet agreed not to renew the current street cleaning and waste collection contract with Veolia in 2025. The decision follows a review of the contract by the council, which is also being undertaken by the three other boroughs in the South London Waste Partnership (SLWP). There will be no impact on any current arrangements. Your waste and recycling collections, plus street cleaning will continue until it is replaced with the new service in April 2025.

Following Cabinet’s decision, we launched a six-week engagement programme asking people to give their views on the current street cleaning and waste collection service and what they thought should come next for the service. The Keep it Clean consultation closed on Tuesday 22 November, and received over 2,000 responses. A series of pop-up roadshows, public online meetings and resident meetings also took place at the beginning of November, giving people more opportunities to share their views.

Results and feedback will be analysed and available in January.

Your questions answered

• What does this mean for rubbish and recycling collections? 
  There will be no impact on any current arrangements. Waste and recycling collections will continue as they are to 2025, and the new service will be ready to replace the current one when the contract ends.
• Why has the council opted to exit the contract? 
  Following a review of the contract and listening to residents’ concerns, the council’s Cabinet has decided that the current contract has not met the standards expected by both the council and our current waste contractor.
• Will there be a reduction in any services? 
  Current services will remain in place until 2025, there will be no reduction to any services. The aim is to provide better services.
• When will the council have a new service ready? 
  The new service will be in place by April 2025.

Veolia service improvement plan 2022

We issued Veolia UK with a Service Improvement Notice in February 2022 following “significant and ongoing concerns” over the quality of street cleaning services in the borough. We wrote to Veolia after seeing no sustainable improvement in street cleanliness over a number of months.

The company is contracted, through the South London Waste Partnership, to maintain the cleanliness of our roads to the required standard.

Following the issuing of the Service Improvement Notice, Veolia’s Managing Director has supplied us with a Service Improvement Action Plan, responding to the concerns within the Service Improvement Notice.

Our priorities are, and always will be, those of the residents of Merton. These priorities form the foundation of the Service Improvement Action Plan with which we will now, in the immediate term, hold Veolia to account.

• Service Improvement Notice February 2022
• Veolia Service Improvement Action Plan