A NEW company should be picked next week to take over Wycombe's waste collection service.

The existing company, Onyx, is ending its contract with Wycombe District Council in April after operating at a loss.

Onyx is also having to pay the council compensation.

The company won the seven-year contract in October 1996, with a tender of £1 million a year, plus annual updates for inflation.

For this it collects waste once a week from 64,000 properties in the district.

Richard Powell, engineering manager for Wycombe District Council, said the contract price was very low and good value but Onyx had been losing money.

He said the compensation paid by Onyx was a negotiated sum and not in the public domain at present.

Maurice Oram, leader of the Lib Dems on the council, told the Free Press his party thought at the time the tender price was too low, but the company had insisted it could operate it.

New contractors will be chosen next Thursday, at a confidential meeting of the council's policy and resources committee and ratified by the full council immediately afterwards.

It is the second time the council has tried to find a replacement for Onyx. Labour group leader Ted Collins said the figures were frightening the last time so the council went out again.

The Onyx contract will finish on Sunday April 22 and the new company take over the following day.