At the end of January the council will put out a pre-information notice – a standard advert informing waste management companies that it will soon be procuring for a disposal contract.
” Each bid will be looked at on a value for money basis and we have not ruled out any treatment processes “
– Steve Pearson, Derbyshire CC
According to waste manager Steve Pearson, the council will then officially advertise the contract at the end of April, with a view to securing a contractor by the end of 2006.
Mr Pearson said the council would not be seeking support from the government's Private Finance Initiative because time is running out to meet Derbyshire's landfill allowance trading scheme (LATS) obligations.
He said: “We did a lot of value for money work and looked at the potential time-scale of the PFI, which tends to take longer than other processes. We believe that we can save between 12 and 24 months on procurement.”
Strategy
The county council has just come to the end of a public consultation on its strategy for managing the Derbyshire's annual 500,000 tonnes of household waste. At the moment, with Waste Recycling Group running the county's disposal contract, a household waste recycling rate of about 23% is being achieved.
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A new contract for Derbyshire is likely to begin in April 2008. In the initial consultation on the waste strategy, the county council has suggested three best environmental options for treating Derbyshire's residual waste – anaerobic digestion, energy-from-waste incineration and MBT or steam treatment.
Mr Pearson said: “We will look to secure a contract for around 25 years, in order to take us up to and through the LATS targets. Each bid will be looked at on a value for money basis and we have not ruled out any treatment processes.”
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