There may be circumstances during the service period where exceptional events occur where the Authority needs to ask for the Contractor's assistance in dealing with the issue by providing additional or alternative services. The Authority's Peace-Time Emergency Plan and its Waste Service Emergency Plan may identify such scenarios and should inform the emergency planning arrangements for the Contract as all these plans need to be cross-referenced and mutually compatible.
Under the WIDP Contract (Clause 31) in an Emergency the Authority can ask the Contractor to use its best endeavours to procure the additional or alternative services required to ensure the Emergency is dealt with and normal operations resumed as soon as reasonably practicable. However the Contractor is not obliged to perform any services which it is either not qualified or competent to provide. The Contractor is entitled to charge any properly incurred costs to the Authority.
The Contract Management Manual should include the precise definition of an Emergency in the relevant section. If there are events falling within the definition of Emergency that are reasonably foreseeable or become foreseeable during the service period the Contract Manager may wish to discuss such contingencies with the Contractor in advance to establish whether there is scope for pre-agreeing the sort of additional or alternative services that might be provided by the Contractor. Any matters agreed should be incorporated into the Contract Management Manual.