Cumbria councillors put back decision on 400m waste deal

Councillors had been expected to confirm the county council's cabinet decision to select Shanks Waste Management as preferred bidder for the contract, thought to be worth around 400 million. The rival bid, from Waste Recycling Group, had been expected to be named as Cumbria's reserve bidder.

” We have been very lucky to have had two very good companies and two very good bids to choose between – now we have to really iron out the details.“
– Cllr Jack Richardson, Cumbria CC
But, following the full council meeting in Kendal today, a decision had still not been reached.

Councillors have deferred the decision, seeking clarification on some “technical and legal points”. A spokesman for Cumbria told letsrecycle.com that these points were commercially sensitive and could not be divulged.

The county council spokesman ruled out any question over the mechanical biological treatment technology proposed by Shanks for the treatment of Cumbria's waste.

He said: “Shanks are still recommended as preferred bidder and the deferral does not appear to be anything to do with the technology. The members simply wanted to clarify a few points.”

No date has been set for the deferred decision. Although the next full council meeting is scheduled for November 16, the spokesman said it would not necessarily take this long to reach an agreement by the county council on the waste contract.

MBT
Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) involves a combination of physical separation techniques to recycle materials like metals and plastic, as well as biological composting or digestion processes. The system is being used by Shanks in a plant in East London, and the company is also building an MBT plant in Dumfries.

Waste Recycling Group is proposing an energy-from-waste incineration plant within its proposal for the Cumbria contract.

The county of Cumbria is currently landfilling around 170,000 tonnes of biodegradable waste every year. Under Defra's Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme this level must be reduced to 51,422 tonnes by 2020.

As well as a residual waste treatment plant, such as a Shanks MBT facility, Cumbria will also look to improve its recycling rate – which in 2004/05 was only 17%. As part of the deal, which is not being supported by the Private Finance Initiative, the winning bidder is set to acquire the council-owned waste company Cumbria Waste Management.

Cllr Jack Richardson, cabinet spokesman on waste management, said: “We have been very lucky to have had two very good companies and two very good bids to choose between – now we have to really iron out the details of the bid.

“The point of the whole process is to find a sustainable way of dealing with the county's waste – whatever technology we end up with we are going to have to continue improving our recycling composting performance and reduce and reuse as much of our waste as possible,” Cllr Richardson added.