Ards and North Down smarter waste services case study
Ards and North Down Borough Council transforms bin collection services with GOSS and Tailwind Digital, improving efficiency, reducing call volumes, and enhancing the resident experience.
Ards and North Down Borough Council is the latest UK local authority to implement significant efficiencies in public service delivery. Formed in 2015 following the merger of the former Ards and North Down councils, it is responsible for a broad range of services, including refuse collection, recycling, environmental health, leisure, and community development.
The council’s long-term vision, outlined in The Big Plan for Ards and North Down 2017-2032, places strong emphasis on accessibility, sustainability, and community empowerment. A key part of this vision is the modernisation of digital services to better serve residents across the borough. To support this ambition, the council has recently enhanced its bin collection and waste services. Working with GOSS, the council’s digital platform provider, and Tailwind Digital, a public sector delivery partner, the council has reimagined how residents report waste collection issues and check collection information online.
Challenges
Ards and North Down Borough Council faced several challenges in delivering accessible and efficient digital waste services. Bin-related information was in particularly high demand, with the bin calendar becoming the second most visited page on the council’s website and attracting over 200,000 users since May 2023. Around 75 per cent of this traffic came from mobile devices, highlighting the need for a responsive, mobile-friendly experience.
Despite strong online engagement, many residents continued to rely on phone calls and emails to report missed collections or request support. This placed a heavy workload on customer services staff and slowed response times. The council’s previous content management system also limited opportunities for self-service and integration with back-office systems, making it difficult to scale or improve digital efficiency.
To address these challenges, the council set out clear objectives for transforming its waste services. It aimed to give residents simple, intuitive ways to access collection information and report bin-related issues. Ultimately, aiming to reduce phone and email enquiries, improve operational efficiency, and deliver accurate, real-time information.
Solution
To address challenges in bin collection services, Ards and North Down Borough Council partnered with GOSS and Tailwind Digital to co-design a tailored digital solution that empowered residents to self-serve while providing internal teams with flexible tools to manage services more effectively.
Working with Tailwind Digital, the council developed a new Bin Widget, a self-service tool that enables residents to access personalised bin collection schedules, report missed collections and request new bins quickly and easily. A key part of the solution was the integration of two core data sources, WebAspx, which manages collection planning, property servicing, and route optimisation, and Routeware, which provides live in-cab operational data such as collection status, contamination reports, and access issues. This integration allows the Bin Widget to display real-time, operationally verified information, replacing static timetables with accurate updates while reducing manual intervention and unnecessary resident contact.
Throughout the project, Ards and North Down also leveraged their GOSS Digital Platform to integrate with the Bin Widget, surfacing real-time bin collection data directly to customers. GOSS CMS enables efficient management and publication of waste-related content, while GOSS Forms supports intuitive, self-service transactions such as reporting missed collections and requesting new bins. Council staff were actively involved across design, prototyping, testing, and refinement, ensuring the final solution met operational needs, improved efficiency, and delivered a seamless experience for residents.
Results
The introduction of the Bin Widget has transformed both the resident experience and operational efficiency at Ards and North Down Borough Council. Since launching, the Bin Widget has delivered clear and measurable results, including:
• A significant, one-third reduction in call volumes, easing the load on the call handling team (see data below).
• 36 per cent fewer missed bin reports compared to before the new process was launched.
• Improved resident satisfaction, with an intuitive, easy-to-use online experience.
• More efficient service management, freeing up time for staff to focus on higher-value tasks.
• Accurate, real-time data, removing manual handling and reducing error rates.
Before the introduction of the new online missed bin process, an average of 25 missed bins were reported per day by customers. By building business rules and supporting customers in understanding what qualifies as a missed bin, this number has been reduced to an average of 16 per day. Furthermore, the publication of the new online Bin Widget and process has supported a reduction in overall calls to the Waste and Cleansing team.
Staff feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Waste Collection Services Manager Ian Frazer reported that “the project has reduced calls to service and led to a happier call handling team,” while Admin Officer Susan Hamilton noted that “it has taken some of the calls away and also improved the look of the online calendars.”
The Bin Widget ensures that residents see accurate, up-to-date information, building trust and reducing unnecessary contact. It has been a crucial step in Ards and North Down’s digital transformation journey, showing how collaboration, open communication, and user-centred design can turn everyday services into smarter, more sustainable digital experiences. The success of this project demonstrates how agile, multidisciplinary teams can deliver real transformation in local government. By combining Ards and North Down’s service knowledge with Tailwind Digital’s and GOSS’s technical expertise, the team has created a solution that is both practical and future focused. Areas for future enhancement have already been identified, ensuring the system continues to evolve as resident expectations and digital capabilities grow.
