Cheshire sticks to PFI plans

The council's waste and planning department told letsrecycle.com last night that it was still evaluating bids for the £1 billion deal despite confirmation by the Department for Communities and Local Government last month that it is to set up two new unitary authorities in Cheshire.

Under the Local Government Review, Cheshire county council – along with the Chester city council, Vale Royal district council, Macclesfield and Ellesmere port borough council and Neston borough council- will be replaced by unitary authorities in East and West Cheshire from April 2009. “Shadow” authorities will be elected in May 2008.

Although this could potentially damage the ongoing PFI procurement, Cheshire's waste and planning manager Harold Collin claimed that the new council bodies were likely to support the continuation of the existing procurement exercise.

Mr Collin added that the county authority intended to keep the shadow authorities up to date on the progress of the procurement, for the benefit of all involved.

He said: “We intend to continue with the procurement and as the shadow authorities are formed we will communicate with them. In the district council submission for the local government review the district councils indicated that the PFI procurement would continue. The need is as important for them as it has been for Cheshire county council.”

“At this point in time there is no need to stop the procurement but very strong reasons to continue,” he stressed.

Bidders

Under Cheshire's procurement exercise, eight companies have so far been selected from the 13 named by the county council last year (see letsrecycle.com story). A smaller, official shortlist will be announced in March or April, with a view to  naming a preferred bidder in late Autumn, and reaching financial close in Spring 2009.

If the contract is not settled before the county council is dissolved, Mr Collin said that it was possible it would be signed by the two new unitary authorities instead.

Further details, such as what will happen to individual recycling officers throughout the county, currently remain unclear.

Mr Collin said: “I hope everyone supports us and urges us to continue. If there is any delay the new authorities could be up and running and it could be left to them to finally sign but we need to wait and see exactly where we are.”

Contracts

In the next week, Cheshire council expects to sign a landfill contract with Waste Recycling Group and a multi-million pound contract with Derbyshire-based HW Martin Waste Ltd for the operation of its 16 household waste recycling centres (see letsrecycle.com story).

The county council recently opened a £1.9 million recycling centre at Winsford, which is the second site to have been opened in Cheshire to replace existing facilities in the last 18 months.

To promote recycling, only five of the 17 skips on site accept household waste, whilst the others accept card, rubble, timber, green materials, metal and wood. There are two additional dedicated areas for recycling containers including glass, cans, oil, batteries and WEEE.

As a result, green waste recycling is up by almost 49% and scrap metal is up by almost 37% when compared to last year.

Unveiling the facility, county council chairman councillor Neville Price said: “At a cost of £1.9 million this centre offers local residents a modern site ten times bigger than the old one and one that we hope will encourage them to recycle more. Throughout construction, recycled materials have been used wherever possible to practise what we preach.”