Torbay residents will soon have a new provider for a range of frontline services including their local waste, recycling, highways, street scene and grounds maintenance services.

After 10 years of TOR2 providing services including refuse collection and recycling for Torbay, these are being brought back in house from July 2020, with Torbay Council establishing a new company wholly owned, which will go by the name of SWISCo. The aim is to provide a new, improved service for the Bay. Staff affected from both TOR2 and the Council have been communicated with throughout the process and kept informed of TUPE and other arrangements.

SWISCo’s vision is to improve and sustain where we live and work by transforming service delivery.

The new company’s purpose is to deliver safe, reliable and efficient services to enable our communities to thrive.

In addition the Council plans to work more closely with local volunteers to help maintain the Bay’s parks and green spaces and empower local people to take more pride in their area.

Services SWISCo will provide for residents include:

• Bin collections
• Recycling collections
• Street Cleansing
• Highway maintenance
• Garage service
• Bulky and garden waste collections (paid-for service)
• Grounds maintenance

Residents will be able to call the service on 01803 701316. The emergency (out of hours) number is 01803 701318

In addition SWISCo will deliver a range of commercial waste services, including:

• Trade and commercial waste collections
• Commercial sharps and clinical collections
• Commercial waste disposal

You can call our Commercial waste service on 01803 701317.

Councillor Mike Morey, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Environment and Culture for Torbay Council, said: “Residents will have a new service provider to collect their bins and provide a wide range of other important frontline services – but you don’t need to do anything.

“Torbay Council and TOR2 are working closely together to ensure a smooth transition as we move services which have been provided for the past 10 years by TOR2 back into the management of Torbay Council, via our new company SWISCo.

“Our aim is to make the service more efficient and enable residents to recycle more of their waste. There will be a new website and a new contact number to make it easier for local residents to report issues and to enable a more efficient response.

“We will also be working with local volunteer groups such as Groundwork and Torbay Community Development Trust to help enhance our local parks and green spaces.”

A new website – www.swisco.co.uk – will be launched soon but you can find out more about services and report any issues via our website.