Cornwall Council’s Cabinet will have to look at changing the proposed new waste and recycling contract after all the bids to run the service were too expensive.

The council is currently working to set up a new contract to run the council’s rubbish and recycling service which is due to start next April.

A key part of the new contract is to change the kerbside collections so that recycling and food waste are collected weekly and black bag waste fortnightly in a bid to drive up recycling rates.

The new collection service is set to be rolled out across Cornwall from June 2021 and last week the full council agreed to spend up to £62 million on new rubbish trucks and facilities for the new contract.

Last week’s full council meeting also saw some councillors claiming that people in Cornwall did not want black bag waste to be collected fortnightly.

Tomorrow (September 18) the council’s Cabinet is due to meet and consider an update on the awarding of the new contract which states that none of the bids received are within the council’s budget.

As a result officers have recommended that the Cabinet considers an alternative contingency option. However no details of the alternative option have been made public and will be discussed behind closed doors.

Under the new contract the council was looking to merge what are currently three different contracts:

* waste and recycling collection service and beach cleansing contract;

* bulky household waste collection, reuse, recycling and disposal contract;

* office waste and recycling collection, treatment and disposal service contract.

As well as those services named the contract also covers other things including fly-posting and graffiti removal, street washing and chewing gum removal, fly tipping waste removal and dead animal collection service.

The report going to Cabinet states that in trying to secure a new operator “the process to date has unfortunately not resulted in an affordable bid submission”.

It states that two final bidders were working with the council and submitted their final tenders at the end of August. The council did notify the bidders that there was a “challenge to affordability” but the bids received were beyond the council’s budget.

As a result the Cabinet will have to decide which of the contingency options that have been drawn up should be pursued.

The Cabinet is due to meet tomorrow when members will make a decision on how the waste contract will proceed, although the full details will only be debated in closed session due to it containing confidential financial information.

Tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting will also see councillors discussing a report on whether to approve £12m towards Spaceport Cornwall; a performance report; approving increases to the council’s capital programme and the acquisition of 19 affordable homes in Perranzabuloe.