I am sorry to read that your bin collection has been missed and upon investigation it appears that this was due to lack of capacity on the collection vehicle meaning they would have had to return to the depot to empty the contents before returning another day.

The contract we have with Kier is designed to ensure that the majority of bins are collected on the correct days and 97% of the time this is achieved.  On the occasions this is not achieved the contract allows us to issue defaults that incur a financial deduction from Kier’s payment if Kier do not return to complete a bin collection when it has been missed.

Penalties in English law are contractual terms which are not enforceable in the courts because of their penal character.  This legal position has been subject to review as a result of case law in 2016 but the current Contract was executed in 2012 and does not include penalty provisions.  So whilst we are not able to penalise the contractor in the strictest sense of the word, the contract does enable us to recover genuine pre-estimates of loss as provided for by the Performance Management terms in the Contract. (24/07/2018)