Bristol City Council could abandon its waste and home-building companies and bring the services back in-house, a report reveals. Papers to next week’s cabinet expose “very serious concerns” with the future of Bristol Waste, which is already having to make cuts to services, including closing the city’s tips two days a week, to balance its books from April amid longer-term doubts that it can even continue operating.
The documents show council bosses have agreed with expert advice to reassess whether or not to continue with the “commercial model” of having arms-length companies at all. It is understood concerns over political interference in Bristol Waste’s decisions, which are supposed to be independent of the council and mayor, have also played a part in the decision to hold a review.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has learned that the firm recently suggested reducing black bin collections to once every three weeks, which would have saved about £1million a year, but this was vetoed by Marvin Rees's Labour administration because it would have been hugely unpopular and come at a political price. Like many local authorities, Bristol City Council has been the owner – or sole shareholder – of several companies since 2015, each under a parent company called Bristol Holding which also belongs to the organisation.
