Best and final offers were submitted on November 1 2005, with price confirmations submitted just before Christmas.
The contract, backed by 30 million of Private Finance Initiative funding, will see a decision by the members of Cornwall County Council in mid-January over whether Focsa or SITA UK is to be the preferred bidder.
The tender process has not been without controversy. Some information from an earlier stage in the process about the pricing element of either the whole contract or parts of the contract was leaked from the county council offices.
Inquiry
It is understood that some council papers relevant to the tender process were distributed to outside parties and may even have been sent to the two contractors concerned. The council itself launched an inquiry and brought in private investigators to help look into the matter.
The distribution of the papers is thought unlikely to affect the final part of the bidding procedure. But, as an additional precaution to avoid further difficulties relevant papers are being kept under strict supervision.
The Liberal Democrat-controlled council's executive committee, under leader David Whalley, is meeting this week to hear more about the progress of the bid assessment.
A spokeswoman for the authority confirmed that the officers are at the stage of bid assessment “against a set of predetermined criteria. Members can then accept the recommended preferred bidder or reject the process entirely.”
Incineration
Among the public in Cornwall, the contract is starting to attract more attention, and a new protest group opposed to incineration of waste has been formed. Both contractors are proposing an incinerator as part of their submission.
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The proposals also include measures to expand recycling and composting and new and upgraded household waste recycling.
The council has said there will be “no upper limit on recycling”, and the new contractor will be “required to recycle or compost all source segregated material”.
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