At every full council meeting, my colleagues and I have the opportunity to ask questions of the cabinet members who are in charge of various council services.  Residents will see from the council agendas that it’s an opportunity the Conservative team always takes up, to ask about issues that matter to the people we represent.

At last month’s meeting, one of the questions I asked was about the council’s dairy contract.  Readers may recall that last year the council retendered its dairy contract and awarded it to Totally Welsh, a company which sources its milk from Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.  This effectively ended the longstanding contract with Raglan Dairy.  Our research revealed that the tendering process was botched from the start, accidentally including private schools in the tender and requiring bidders to provide milk in single use plastic bottles instead of reusable glass pint bottles.  We also uncovered the poor hygiene standards at the new supplier’s Cardiff distribution centre, given a rating of 1 meaning major improvement necessary.  The full inspection report raised concerns about food products being stored on pallets next to building materials instead of being refrigerated.

We wanted reassurances that the tendering documents have been rewritten to avoid previous mistakes but also to ensure that small local businesses have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field.  One of the requirements in the last set of tendering documents was that bidding companies have third party food safety accreditation.  For small independent local businesses, which already have regular food safety inspections from Monmouthshire’s own food hygiene inspectors, third party accreditation is extremely expensive and unnecessary, when standards have already been verified by MCC’s own trusted inspectors.  This seems like such an unnecessary bureaucratic obstacle and something likely to deter smaller businesses from competing for public sector contracts.

The leader explained how the tendering process was progressing and that officers have had initial discussions with interested bidders at a recent event.  The documentation will be published this week and companies will have until September 16 to submit their bids.  I was told that there are four local suppliers interested in bidding and two national companies, one of which is based in Wales and the other in London.  It looks likely that the new dairy contract will be for five years, which should provide some stability.  We recognise how important it is to residents that milk used in our schools and care homes is sourced locally, so I hope this retendering will deliver that.