It is extremely important that the Authority starts planning early to ensure service continuity after Contract expiry. Some contracts provide for the project facility to transfer to the Authority at expiry but others allow the Contractor to retain the facilities. This will have a major impact on what the Authority needs to do to ensure service continuity. It should be an aspect of the Contract that is well known to the senior decision makers in the Authority team so that the issues arising are dealt with on a timely basis.
The parties may have obligations to perform in relation to the expiry up to 5 years before the event. It is recommended that a Contract Expiry Plan is developed before the first obligation applies in relation to expiry. Resources should be allocated for the work required for the transition.
The Authority will also to need to take into account other stakeholders such as Waste Collection Authorities which may be re-letting collection contracts or ordering new collection vehicles. The collection contracts are unlikely to be coterminous with the Contract so there will be transitional issues to manage with the WCAs.
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