Veolia began a temporary contract at the beginning of this month that will run until the long-term Private Finance Initiative deal is signed.
It is understood that many of the details of the 25-year PFI contract has been agreed between the county council and its preferred bidder, but that the two parties are now working together with the government in order to finalise the deal.
Mick Allen, the county council's project manager, said he believed the PFI arrangements would be finalised soon. He told letsrecycle.com on Monday: “The contract should be signed by the end of next week at the latest.”
Veolia is now operating the council's household waste recycling centres and is actively seeking outlets for Nottinghamshire's dry recyclates, green waste and residual waste.
Standards
Work under the new PFI contract was supposed to begin in April. One of the main reasons for the delay has been the need to meet “SOPC3” requirement – Standards of PFI Contracts.
Veolia and Nottinghamshire have been meeting with the government's public-private working agency Partnerships UK this week in an attempt to resolve the issue. Mr Allen said that since agreement with the preferred bidder had already been achieved, compliance with the government standards would be resolved in the next few days.
Nottinghamshire county council first applied for support through the PFI scheme for a long-term waste contract in July 2003. After assessing proposals from the county, Defra agreed to provide 31.93 million in PFI credits to support the contract.
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Under the government's Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, Nottinghamshire was permitted to landfill 222,405 tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste in 2005/06. By 2010, it must cut the landfilling of organic waste, paper and wood to 181,603 tonnes and by 2020 this must fall to 84,640.
If the county and its new contractors fail to meet its LATS targets, the county could be fined 150 for every tonne about the permitted landfill amount.
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