THE CUSTOMER

Heart of the Lakes is a self catering Agency, which has around 320 properties in its portfolio. The company offers a wide range of Lake District cottages, apartments and houses, all situated within the National Park. The company also provides a fully managed service for approximately 145 properties which are located in the South Lakes area.

HOW WE HELPED

Properties managed by Heart of the Lakes cover a large geographical area. Many homes stand alone in remote areas. This meant the agency needed a waste company able to guarantee regular waste collections to all its properties. In addition, we had to have the flexibility to respond to requests to provide, or empty, bins at very short notice.

Prior to engaging the services of Cumbria Waste Group, Heart of the Lakes had so many different types of collections from various providers and this often led to issues and complaints. Working with the company, we spent a lot of time looking at collections, schedules, identifying a full list of properties, and looking at the possible options, as well as establishing a simple accounting system that would work. We also discussed at length possible issues such as missed collections.

We started providing waste services for Heart of the Lakes in February 2013. At all the properties we provide a 240-litre general waste wheelie bin clearly identified by the Cumbria Waste Group signage that allows people staying in the properties to put all their waste in one container.

As we have vehicles and facilities located across Cumbria we have been able to provide a consistent, flexible and reliable service to meet the needs of Heart of the Lakes.

WHAT THEY THINK

The new system has provided a flexible, robust collection system and a quality service. It has also allowed us to manage any minor issues that inevitably arise during a contract of this nature. The offer of reduced collections has also given us flexibility where properties are not as busy in the colder months.

At the outset we established that this was about providing the best service for Heart of the Lakes and in this respect Cumbria Waste Group has met all our expectations.

Julian Cottell, Quality Services Manager