Bucks confirms WRG as frontrunner for EfW deal

Todays announcement rubberstamps a recommendation made by the councils cabinet in November 2010, that the Spanish-owned company should be chosen for the contract, which involves treating an estimated 210,000 tonnes a year of waste (see letsrecycle.com story).

That decision was called-in in December 2010 by the councils overview and scrutiny commissioning committee to address issues such as costs associated with Waste Recycling Groups (WRG) proposals and whether the financial case for the contract was strong enough to proceed.

But, following a review by both the cabinet and the committee last month, the council has now endorsed WRG as preferred bidder for the contract, and also confirmed that it believes energy-from-waste incineration is the best option for managing the countys waste.

Martin Tett, Buckinghamshire county council cabinet member for planning and environment, paid tribute to the scrutiny committees examination of the project and noted that the procurement was government by strict EU rules which he said reduced the risk of the councils decision being challenged.

A significant amount of work has been carried out over the course of this procurement process to assess the most suitable solution to manage Buckinghamshires waste, he added.

We have followed a rigorous evaluation process which has shown that WRG offer us the cheapest solution, helping us to save over 100 million in landfill costs over the life of the contract.

The council now aims to work with WRG to clarify and confirm commitments under the contract, and undertake final due diligence before a final decision on awarding the contract is considered by the cabinet in autumn 2011.

Todays announcement is the latest step in an unpredictable procurement process which originally saw US energy-from-waste incineration specialists Covanta named as preferred bidder for the residual waste treatment deal in September 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).

But, in March 2010, the council decided to take the procurement process back one step, rescinding Covantas preferred bidder status in the process, due to a legal issue over the site the company had proposed to use to deliver the contract (see letsrecycle.com story).

Covanta had planned to send waste delivered under the contract to the 390,000 tonne-a-year capacity EfW facility it plans to build at Rookery Pit, in neighbouring Bedfordshire.

Planning

The councils latest announcement comes after WRG last week (February 23) formally submitted a planning application to Buckinghamshire county council for the EfW incinerator at Calvert that it aims to develop to deliver the councils waste treatment contract.

The councils website explains that the application will be decided by the 10 councillors who make up its development control committee, noting that owing to the expected volume of representations on this application, it is unlikely that a decision will be made by the Development Control Committee before the autumn of this year.