Cornwall to press ahead with PFI waste contract timetable

The county council is almost halfway through its two-year procurement timetable for the waste contract, which has been allocated 29.9 million in PFI funding by the Treasury and is scheduled to start at the end of March next year.

Three main contractors – Viridor Waste Management, Focsa Waste Services and SITA UK – have been shortlisted as preferred bidders. The county is due to make a decision on inviting &#39be;st and final offers' from just two companies by the end of this month with a final preferred bidder announced in May.

The 25 year contract is being negotiated by the county on behalf of its six district and borough council partners, but members of the “ReZolve” action group say that councillors should postpone decisions on the PFI contract until there has been greater public consultation on the waste strategy.

Debate
Local campaigners are concerned that the waste contract includes plans to incinerate up to 50% of all waste, with Deborah Clark, chair of ReZolve, saying: “We have yet to have the full debate about what waste management systems the people of Cornwall want.

“The PFI contract is the biggest single contract ever let by the local authorities. It will last for 25 years and is worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Decisions on something that big need to be properly consulted in an open and transparent way.

“It wouldn’t be fair to expect councillors to vote on something as big as the PFI contract without the reassurance of knowing that the consultation had been undertaken and conclusions drawn which should guide their decision,” she said.

In a letter to councillors ReZolve has said: “We ask councilors to recognise the importance of producing this strategy in consultation with the communities they represent before choosing the preferred bidder and contract terms for the waste PFI scheme.”

A spokesman for the county said the Cornwall Waste Local Plan 2003 sets out the waste management strategy for the county and was drawn up after extensive consultation and a public inquiry in February and March 2002.

Cornwall aims to achieve a 50% recycling and composting target by 2008 and to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by 50% by 2013 as part of its work with district and borough councils on the development of the integrated waste management strategy.