Gloucestershire council has decided to push ahead with its long-term residual waste treatment contract, despite the loss of PFI funding for the 500 million project in the October 2010 Spending Review.
The councils cabinet agreed last week (March 16) to continue with the procurement and named a two-bidder shortlist for the contract, which is set to focus on the development of a large-scale energy-from-waste incinerator on Javelin Park, near Harefield.
This prompted the council to carry out a strategic reappraisal of whether the project could go ahead without the 92 million of PFI support.
And, the councils Cabinet decided last week that a number of environmental and cost factors meant the procurement should be continued and, as a result, cut the shortlist for the contract to just two bidders, which are:
Complete Circle a consortium between equity investors John Laing, engineering company Keppel Seghers and waste company Shanks;
and, a joint bid from Spanish waste company Urbaser and civil engineers Balfour Beaty.
This means the other two remaining bidders named on a January 2010 shortlist for the contract, Cory Environmental and Viridor (see letsrecycle.com story), are no longer in contention for the 25-year deal.
Councillor Stan Waddington, the councils cabinet member for environment and waste, said: This was a controversial decision to make but ultimately one we need to take we cannot keep sending waste to landfill and we must find a solution that is affordable and sustainable.
I would like to reassure everyone that we are looking at this with peoples safety and health as a top priority. Weve employed an international expert to advise us on the health implication of building a waste facility and we will be guided by him throughout.
Reasons
The reasons given by Gloucestershire to continue with the procurement include a claim that the cost of EfW is estimated to be around 500million over 25 years doing nothing and continuing to landfill will cost 659million.
The council also said the plant could generate electricity equivalent to 28,000 homes, create recycled building materials, as a by-product of the incineration process and produce heating that could be used homes or businesses.
At the meeting, members also gave their backing for a major push on recycling in the county with aspirations to reach 70% recycling by 2030.
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