Purpose

The Council provides a commercial cesspool
collection service in and around the Borough of Dacorum. The
collections from cesspools require a suitably adapted collection
vehicle (tanker) to clear the tanks.
 
The Council requires a smaller sized tanker,
due to the terrain of where these properties are built, these are
mainly in rural areas as they are unable to be connected into the
disposal network of sewers.
 
The delivery time or ‘lead time’
for all commercial vehicles is long at present owing to a
combination of a backlog of orders built up during the pandemic,
general supply chain problems and a particular issue with the
supply of microchips. Specialist vehicles lead times are now in
excess of 12 months.
 
The Waste Services team has been able to
locate a new tanker which is available for delivery, and that would
replace the current vehicle (T628) being used and no longer is fit
for purpose.
 

Decision

Decision made and
reasons:
 
Decision
 
To retrospectively set aside the
Council’s Procurement Standing Orders and award a direct
contract to purchase the new Cesspool Tanker.
 
Reasons
 
The Council have the opportunity to purchase a
vehicle with a very short lead time but need to place the order
urgently to secure the vehicle.
 
The vehicle would replace an existing vehicle
that has started to have regular breakdowns and is causing the
Service issues when trying to deliver the Cesspool Service to fee
paying customers.
 
The Strategic Director and Head of Service for
the Cesspool Service both support the procurement of this
replacement vehicle.