WEST Devon Borough and South Hams District councils have signed a new contract with FCC Environment to provide all waste, recycling collection and street and toilet cleaning services from last week (April 1).

FCC Environment will continue to deliver a range of key services in West Devon and now will extend these to the South Hams. In addition, extra benefits are also offered which will help to improve the local environment, such as the support of local litter picks and community environmental events.

At an official signing of the contract, FCC’s group chief executive Paul Taylor was present to seal the deal.

Helen Dobby, group manager for commercial services for West Devon Borough and South Hams councils, said: ‘I am delighted to see this contract signed. Big improvements are coming to our recycling services over the next two years. FCC Environment will bring a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise to our services — we look forward to working together to continue to provide essential services and improving recycling for our residents and visitors.’

Steve Longdon, regional director for FCC Environment, said: ‘FCC Environment is one of the UK’s most trusted resource and waste management businesses. We hold over 100 contracts with some 60 local authorities up and down the country, recycling more than 1.6-million tonnes of waste each year and so we consider ourselves to be a safe pair of hands. But ever since Blue Planet 2, citizens have been more interested than ever before in re-using, reducing and recycling so it’s a great time to be building upon our existing activities by rolling out new and enhanced services that will allow resident sin South Hams and West Devon to do just that.’

Helen Dobby added: ‘We continually look at the most up-to-date working practices. I am pleased to be able to say that over the next two years improvements will be put in place to increase the amount and types of household waste which we recycle. The new partnership design is directly linked to what our householders have told us they want to do — recycle more and throw away less. The partnership with FCC started on April 1 but the current service will remain the same as normal in the first few months — so it will be business as usual.’