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Four shortlisted for Bradford and Calderdale PFI

The Bradford and Calderdale Waste Partnership has cut the shortlist for its multi-million pound, 25-year waste PFI contract to four bidders – all of which are consortiums.

We are still looking at a variety of waste treatment methods and will carefully evaluate all of the options before making a final decision

 
Cllr Graham Reason, cabinet member, Calderdale council

The partnership of Bradford metropolitan borough council and Calderdale council made the decision at a meeting of its project board last week (July 23), nine months after it reduced 16 original bidders for the deal down to eight in October 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).

The contract is understood to be worth in the region of £1 billion, however, a spokesman for Bradford council told letsrecycle.com that it would prefer not to give a definitive figure on how much the contract was worth or how much waste would be treated as “all figures are subject to change”.

The waste contract, which is set to commence in July 2015, received £62.1 million in PFI credits in April 2008 and is intended to help both councils increase their recycling performance by as much as 50% over the 25-year contract length (see letsrecycle.com story).

The four bidders shortlisted are:

  • Aire Valley Environmental; a consortium of American incineration giant Covanta and utilities firm Kelda Water Services.
  • A partnership between Californian engineering and construction firm Earth Tech and Swedish construction giant Skanska.
  • Osiris: a consortium of London-based equity investor John Laing, utilities company United Utilities and construction company Costain.
  • 3SE: a partnership between waste management firm Shanks and Scottish and Southern Energy.

The two councils expect to award the contract in mid-2010 and are hopeful of having infrastructure operational by late 2014/early 2015.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, executive member for environment at Bradford, said: “We have carefully evaluated the proposals and have selected four bidders to go through to the next round. We still remain open-minded about what waste treatment option we are looking for.”

Calderdale council's cabinet member for health and social care, Cllr Graham Reason, said: “I am delighted that our councils continue to make good progress towards selecting a contractor for the disposal of household waste. We are still looking at a variety of waste treatment methods and will carefully evaluate all of the options before making a final decision.”

The councils used a ‘hybrid' method of mechanical biological treatment, in-vessel composting and thermal treatment as the reference technology in its bid for PFI funding. However, at a meeting of the project board on July 7 they refused to rule out the use of combined heat and power (CHP).

The partnership has earmarked land at Bowling Back Lane in Bradford which is currently the site of a household waste and recycling centre and a waste transfer station for any developments.

The announcement of the narrowing of the bidder shortlist comes two weeks after Bradford announced that it would not be pursuing plans to develop a £35 million autoclave treatment facility due to “changes in the recycling and financial markets” (see letsrecycle.com story).

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