Northampton and Daventry: Changing contractors and collection days

Northampton Borough Council and Daventry District Council serve a combined population in excess of 280,000. It was decided to tender the waste and collection services for both councils jointly with the aim of reducing costs.

Enterprise, one of the UK’s largest dedicated providers of maintenance and frontline services, was successful in winning the tender.

With many years of campaign work for Enterprise they were keen for us to help implement the communication of the service changes, essential for a smooth transition. The concern for Enterprise was the complexity and speed of the introduction, only having a month to mobilise the service.  This called for a well managed, rapid and thorough communication of the changes to approximately 125,000 households.

The brief

Although we were warned about the service changes a few weeks before the contract signing this still only gave about six weeks from the start of our involvement to commencement of the revised recycling and waste collection services.

Introductory leaflet

Several issues needed to be addressed. The first of these was to inform people of the impending change to help minimise any problems with the introduction.

The second issue was connected with the zoning of the collection area, meaning that virtually every house in the collection area would have a changed collection day. This included extending collection days from Monday through to Saturday. Collections were mixed with a fortnightly system for approximately 85% of the residents and 15% with a weekly collection. This meant a total of 18 different collection rounds to produce customised literature for.

Instructional calendar

In addition to this there was a change to garden waste collections. Cardboard, previously collected in the garden waste bin, was now to be collected from the resident’s kerbside recycling boxes. 

For our clients such a rapid introduction can appear daunting. However, with a coordinated approach we were confident in achieving a near seamless cross over.

The solution

As the contract was completed we rapidly wrote the copy, designed and printed an introductory leaflet that was posted to all residents. This outlined the changes that would be happening to the collection services, changeover date and alerted the residents to the imminent arrival of the detailed collection calendar.

Pop up displays and poster

To ensure that residents had been informed of the upcoming changes these introductory leaflets were supported with newspaper adverts, posters and pop up displays. This blanket coverage meant that it was hard to miss the alterations to the collection services.

Around one week before Enterprise took control of the collections we sent out instructional leaflets containing a calendar, again written, designed, printed and delivered by us, customised to each of the 18 collection zones.

On the final collection prior to the start of the contract, the council collection staff hung reminder hangers from the bins to tell residents that their next collection would be on the new day as detailed in their calendar.

Garden waste contamination sticker and new service bin hanger

To counter contamination and collection day mistakes as the new scheme took effect, the collection crews were given a number of contamination notices. A6 recycling box cards that listed collected material and reasons that the box hadn’t been collected were supplied. Wrong collection day stickers were also given out, telling the resident that the bin had been collected but would only be collected on the correct day from that point on. Finally, garden waste contamination stickers were provided highlighting what can be put in the garden waste bin.

Conclusion

Reaching the general public and preparing them for a change in such a rapid time period is not typical. However, with some foresight combined with experience it is possible to implement these major changes in a way that allows the services to residents to carry on with virtually no problems or inconveniences. By communicating in such a strong and consistent way Enterprise has managed to take over operations without unnecessary complications or wasted time taken up with residents queries.

Key facts

  • Preparing residents to the upcoming changes reduced any problems at introduction
  • The utilisation of a wide range of media ensured the message was received
  • The message was reinforced before and after the introduction
  • A rapid response and past experience allowed us to produce and deliver a wide range of consistent artwork in a short time period

About Northampton and Daventry

  • Provide services to a combined population of over 280,000
  • Approximately 125,000 households