Report by Customer and Corporate Communications Manager (attached)

The Committee considered a report by the Customer and Corporate Communications Manager (circulated previously) regarding the extension of the Royal Mail contract.

The Customer and Corporate Communications Manager highlighted the following:

·         The Council currently had a contract with Royal Mail for the delivery and collection of mail and the contract was due for renewal in December 2020.

·         An extension was requested to that contract to allow for a pilot of “hybrid mail” to take place, whereby all mail was sent to their headquarters, printed and sent out the same day.  Vigorous checks were carried out.

·         It was requested that the recommendation be amended to also request approval to extend the contract with CFH who manage the mailing out of annual council tax and business rates bills. This was because it was likely that any new hybrid mail project would include the annual billing mailings and the Council did not want to be tied into a separate contract for annual billing when it was likely one contract would cover that as well as the day to day mailing. The contract was due to expire in November.