Whilst Contractors are normally prepared to take the risk that there is a gradual change to the composition of waste overtime as result of changes in household consumption and/or behaviour they are not normally prepared to take the risk that Contract Waste tonnages or its composition changes as a result of changes to the collection arrangements. As a result most Contracts give the Contractor some form of relief in the scenario where a Waste Collection Authority changes it approach to collection.
The WIDP Contract (Clause 23.12) gives the Contractor relief if there is a material change to the WCA collection methods. The Contractor has to formally notify the Authority which then has a chance to respond within a specified number of days either agreeing to compensate the Contractor (through an Authority Change) or referring the matter to the Dispute Resolution Procedure (See Section 6.5.2).
The initial WCA collection arrangements (the WCA Baseline) are defined in the WIDP Contract (Schedule 31). Given the potential impact on the Authority of changes to collection arrangements where collection is the responsibility of separate Authorities there should be detailed service level agreements with those WCAs. It is clearly desirable that the Authority is made aware of any changes to collection arrangements by the WCA before they are made. The section of the Contract Management Manual dealing with the relationship with the WCAs should include a clear procedure to be followed when a WCA is planning to make such a change.