Melton Council to merge management of waste services with Harborough

Melton cabinet members voted this evening (Wednesday) for a six-month trial of the arrangement, starting next month, after Harborough Council approved the move at a meeting earlier this week.

The aim is to strengthen the waste services across both areas, share best practice initiatives and enable this to be done in a cost-effective way.

The two councils will share Harborough’s assistant director for waste and environmental services with Melton paying annual costs of £30,000 for the additional support in lieu of not having to appoint its own employee to the role.

The payment is proportional to the size of the areas, with Melton having 19,698 households and Harborough 38,252.

After the meeting, Melton Council leader, Councillor Joe Orson, told the Melton Times: "By taking the decision to work with Harborough and utilise their assistant director to manage our own waste service, Melton will be able to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the well-experienced senior officer in this field in a more cost-effective way.“In turn, the arrangement will see shared learning between the two councils, enabling us both to consider and embed best practices throughout both organisations.

"As well as this we can share resources and explore collaboration opportunities in key areas such as fly tipping, communication, preparedness for legislative change and implementation of the Leicestershire Resources and Waste Strategy.”

The authorities will also share a head of regulatory services to manage legal issues and operations across the councils.

It follows the failure of an attempt to create a ground-breaking strategic collaboration between Melton Borough Council and Harborough District Council last year.

The proposed formal partnership was planned to start early this year with Melton’s chief executive, Edd de Coverly, at the helm of both authorities and shared deputy chief executives between the two councils.

But the initiative was defeated by a margin of single vote when Harborough councillors considered it in December.

It was always stressed that this was never a merger but the relationship would have saved both councils money by removing duplication and helping them to pool resources.

Harborough and Melton Councils already collaborate on several services including Lifeline personal alarm systems, out of hours service and parking enforcement.