Essex cuts waste PFI shortlist to three bidders

Three bidders have been left in the running for the Essex Waste Partnership's PFI-funded waste treatment contract, after the councils involved in the procurement today (July 15) announced they had cut four contenders from the initial shortlist for the £2 billion deal.

The contract is being procured by the partnership, which is made up of the county's two waste disposal authorities Essex county council and Southend-on-Sea borough council, to treat up to 377,000 tonnes of municipal residual waste per annum over a 25-year period.

The three remaining bidders in the running for the deal are: a consortium between United Utilities, equity investors John Laing Investments and engineering firm Laing O'Rourke known as Resources From Waste; a consortium between waste company Cory Environmental and construction firm Skanska, known as SkanskaCory; and, a bid from Spanish waste company Urbaser and Balfour Beatty Capital.

Today's announcement means that bids from a consortium between Shanks and Catalyst Lend Lease, from engineering company VT Group, and from Veolia ES have all not been taken forward to the next stage of the process.

Earlier this week it emerged that Veolia ES' bid involved it working with aggregates company Gent Fairhead, which, in March 2010, secured planning permission to develop a large-scale waste management facility at Rivenhall Airfield, in the centre of the county, despite local opposition (see letsrecycle.com story).

In total, seven names appeared on the Essex Waste Partnership's initial shortlist (see letsrecycle.com story), but a spokesman for Essex county council today revealed that Biffa had withdrawn from the process shortly after being invited to tender.

Technology

While the Partnership has stressed that it remains technology and site neutral, the outline business case it submitted to Defra, which enabled it to secure £100.9 million in PFI credits, was based on a reference technology of mechanical biological treatment (MBT) and a reference site at Courtauld Road, in Basildon, Essex.

In a statement, the councils outlined the next steps for the procurement as being: “The final three will now be asked to develop detailed solutions for further discussion with the councils. The councils intend to announce their preferred bidder before the end of 2011.”