A new company will be picking up waste and recycling in southern Bucks, it has officially been announced - months after this paper revealed Serco had lost out on the lucrative contract.

Buckinghamshire Council has finally announced Veolia will start a 10-year contract to carry out waste and recycling collections and street cleaning services in the Wycombe, Chiltern and South Bucks areas.

It comes after it was revealed to the Bucks Free Press by a Serco staff member in March that the company had lost the contract.

The company had been in a joint waste contract with Wycombe District Council and Chiltern District Council since 2013, but with all district councils and the county council scrapped, a new contract was needed.

They apparently went head to head with Veolia and Biffa to win the contract with the new unitary council, but Veolia was successful.

The new contract with Veolia will start on September 7.

The contract will be introduced on a phased basis with the first stage starting in September in the Chiltern and Wycombe areas and the second in November 2021 in the South Bucks area.

Buckinghamshire Council said the new contract will bring "significant benefits" with new initiatives, including access to funding for local projects, that they say will help make services cleaner, greener and more efficient.

In December, Veolia will introduce its 'village' approach to street cleansing, with teams directly responsible for improving the service in their area to "create local community spaces that we can all take pride in".

In spring 2021 a fleet of new bin lorries will be introduced that will reduce emissions, use electric bin lifts and contain state of the art in-cab technology that connects with the council’s systems to allow residents to report problems and receive updates in real time.

Residents will use the same bins and will still be able to recycle the same range of materials.

There will also be some changes to household collection days in the Chiltern and Wycombe areas from spring 2021 to make the service more efficient, although these have not yet been confirmed.

Bill Chapple OBE, Buckinghamshire Council cabinet member for environment and climate change, said: "We're pleased to be working with Veolia through the award of this major new contract for bin collections and street cleansing across the south of the county.

"The contract brings together excellent services for residents with innovative new approaches which will help to make our waste and recycling services even more environmentally friendly."