The contract is being supported by 75 million in Private Finance Initiative credits from DEFRA and will cover all seventeen councils in the Lancashire Waste Partnership, including waste disposal authorities Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen borough and Blackpool.
The partnership is looking for a network of around nine new waste treatment facilities to handle 1.1 million tonnes of municipal waste a year. Lancashire hopes to start the contract on April 1, 2007 with a full service up and running by April 1, 2010.
Companies wanting to bid for the contract must submit expressions of interest by May 17 2004 following an open day on May 7. The deadline for full tenders will then be 11 June, with Lancashire looking to start more detailed negotiations in early July, 2004.
Network
The Lancashire Waste Partnership said that it envisages a network of four central waste treatment plants for handling recyclables, as well as facilities for in-vessel composting, waste transfer and residual waste treatment.
The contract does cover residual waste treatment but final landfill disposal will be supplied by Lancashire, which will also provide sites and planning approval for the development of eleven waste management facilities.
The partnership is keen to hear other proposals using new technologies, Lancashire's contract manager Dick Ellis told letsrecycle.com. He said the partnership will consider all treatments proposed, looking at their suitability of meeting recycling and landfill diversion targets.
He said: “We will be setting targets within the PFI contract and we do not have any particular technology in mind. We are looking to see what is the best in the world and to bring that to Lancashire.”
MBT
Lancashire has already entered negotiations on a separate contract with preferred bidder Herhof Environmental UK to build a Mechanical Biological Treatment plant (see letsrecycle.com story). The aim of this Public-Private Procurement contract is to meet short-term targets.
Mr Ellis said: “We are negotiations with Herhoff for a PPP contract which is totally separate to the PFI contract.”
In 2002-03, Lancashire's county council's recycling and composting rate of 20%, Blackpool council's was 13% and Blackburn and Darwen's was 11%.
The partnership has appointed Grant Thornton as financial advisors for the procurement phase of the PFI scheme.
Mark Burke of Grant Thornton said: “The fact that DEFRA has granted this scheme 75 million of PFI credits against a usual cap of 25 million underlines the importance and pioneering nature of the project.”
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