Gloucester City Council will appoint Gloucestershire company Ubico to collect residents’ waste from April next year.

Ubico is co-owned by the other local Councils in Gloucestershire (plus West Oxfordshire) and will provide Gloucester with waste and recycling services, street and toilet cleaning, grounds and tree maintenance. 

The contract will see Gloucester City Council also become a shareholder in the waste and recycling company which will allow it a greater say on service changes and improvements. 

Cabinet members took the decision at this week’s cabinet meeting not to extend the contract with its current provider Urbaser who recently took over the contract from Amey. 

It followed a report by independent auditors KPMG who looked at the proposals put forward by both Ubico and Urbaser and made recommendations about which services would provide best value for taxpayers money and a quality service. 

The proposals include an offer by Ubico to improve response times to deal with waste issues, an emergency out of hours service and enhanced requirements for the cleaning of public highways.

The publicly owned company also pledges to work with the local community and help address antisocial behaviour through using targeted groundworks and street furniture which can reduce fly tipping and vandalism. 

Other benefits of working with Ubico include its Ubico Academy initiative and approach to training and development by encouraging local employment and apprenticeships. 

In addition, Ubico’s alternative fuel trials and desire to move towards greener technology is in line with Gloucester’s environmental policies. 

The deal sees a £5 million investment for the purchase of new vehicles which would also benefit from advances in technology helping the city to reduce its carbon footprint.