The London Borough of Merton will revert to in-house street-cleaning starting from 2025, after the council’s cabinet came to an agreement this Monday.
Bin collection will continue under contract with a new service that will start at the same time as the in-house street-cleaning.
The council went through the thoughts of 2,500 residents in a six-week assessment during October-November before assessing all options in the ensuing time until this week.
Natasha Irons, Cabinet Member for Local Environment, Green Spaces & Climate change, said: “More than two and a half thousand residents responded to our consultation ahead of this decision, and we want to thank everyone who took part.
“We’ve been listening to those views, and in the next few months, we’ll be improving collections from flats above shops and piloting our new mobile recycling centre which will bring the services we offer at Garth Road closer to you.”
Merton’s current street-cleaning service
Merton are currently in a partnership with waste management company Veolia alongside the other three boroughs (Sutton, Kingston and Croydon) in the South London Waste Partnership (SLWP).
The council already declared that they would not renew the contract with Veolia back in October, after consulting with residents and assessing all possible options.
The partnership, due to expire in 2025 before the transition to in-house, started in 2017 and slowly led to dissatisfaction from residents.
Merton Council submitted a Service Improvement Notice to Veolia in February 2022, as the response rate of cleaning roads dropped from 97% to 39% according to the council’s data.
Time for a new direction
While improvements were made over the past year, Merton Council Leader Ross Garrod believed it was time for a change.
He said: “We’ve made significant improvements in the past year, including overnight cleaning and investing into the new street sweeping equipment, but we want to push on from there.
“This is yet another tangible step towards our ambitions of nurturing civic pride, building a sustainable future, and creating a borough of sport.”
The council plans to begin the building process for its new street-cleaning system and commence its search for a new bin collection service next month.
The new systems will replace Veolia in April 2025, when the contract comes to an end.
There was no confirmation of plans for the other three SLWP borough when their Veolia contracts end, though Kingston seek to recommission the service under new terms.
Featured image credit: TheFrog001 under the license CC0 1.0
