The authority said this approach, of talking to one company before naming them as preferred bidder, is very helpful when negotiating large contracts.
In May this year the council announced that it would be talking exclusively to local waste firm Donarbon with regards to a long term waste treatment contract.
However, it was made clear at the time that the company was not a preferred bidder but was entering into a “period of negotiation” with the council.
Following the discussions, a report from council officers will go to Cabinet next Tuesday (September 26) recommending that Donarbon are officially given preferred bidder status.
Alan Kippax, PFI project manager at Cambridgeshire, said: “This has been a very helpful phase of the negotiations. It has allowed us to understand a little more about Donarbon's bid and will allow us to go forward with more confidence.”
MBT
If Donarbon is confirmed as preferred bidder, the final negotiations are due to take place between October and February next year. The contract is scheduled to be awarded on February 27, with a start date of April 2007.
The 25-year contract is supported by 35 million in private finance initiative credits. Donarbon has proposed to build an MBT plant to treat the council's non-recyclable waste.
In the council's report it is claimed that Donarbon's bid offers “a value-for-money solution”, which is scheduled to be built by 2010 when Cambridgeshire believes it will begin to struggle to meet its landfill diversion targets.
Flexible
The report also describes the MBT technology as a “flexible solution”.
It states: “Depending on how environmental legislation changes over time, the stabilised organic output of the process may be recyclable for forestry and land reclamation uses. Within limits, therefore, the solution offers flexibility to meet changing uses for outputs and to recover different materials as waste composition changes over time.”
Cambridgeshire has an exceptional record for recycling and earlier this month became the first council to achieve a recycling rate of 50%. (see letsrecycle.com story)
But it still has the task of reducing the amount of biodegradable waste it sends to landfill to just 51,099 tonnes by 2020. In 2005/06 the council sent 145,772 tonnes to landfill.
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