Central Beds votes to go it alone on waste deal

The council is now set to advertise for bidders next month for the 25-year deal, which is set to involve treating up to 60,000 tonnes a year of residual household waste, with the council stressing that both the technology and site used will be decided during the procurement process.

However, it has been suggested in the past that Central Bedfordshire could send its waste to US energy-from-waste specialist Covanta's proposed large-scale incinerator at Rookery Pit, near Stewartby, in the neighbouring Bedford council area.

Covanta has proposed that the 390,000 tonne-a-year capacity facility be used for both Bedfordshire's and Buckinghamshire's waste.

And, in the business case for the Bedfordshire Energy and Recycling (BEaR) project that was approved yesterday, Central Bedfordshire council acknowledged that, while it was “most likely” bids would involve purpose-built facilities, other planned facilities could be involved.

It said: “It is also likely that a number of contracting solutions will come forwards during the procurement due to the nature of the waste treatment market and the current procurement activity in the local area.”

And, explaining that a merchant facility was among the options, it added: “The Project team will not rule out solutions proposing the importation or exportation of waste as it plans to keep the procurement as open as possible, allowing innovative and value for money solutions to present themselves.”

Central Bedfordshire is procuring the contract on its own after first Bedford borough council in September 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story) and then Luton borough council, in December 2009, (see letsrecycle.com story), dropped out of the project, citing increasing costs.

It was then hit further by Defra's January 2010 decision not to award it £79 million in PFI funding (see letsrecycle.com story), but councilor Budge Wells, assistant portfolio holder for the project at Central Bedfordshire council, said yesterday's decision showed the local authority was still committed to tackling the area's residual waste.

“The decision made by Central Bedfordshire Council will have a massive impact on the future of waste management in the area for years to come,” he said.

“Central Bedfordshire recycled close to 50% this year but we don't intend to stop there and aim to recycle as much as 60% by 2020. Even with more recycling we still need a greener solution to landfill to treat the rest of the waste.

“The council has to deal with residual waste that is created in Central Bedfordshire and by backing the business case for BEaR we are showing our commitment to resolving this issue,” he added.

House of Commons

The controversial nature of Covanta's proposals for Rookery Pit – and in particular, their plans to bring in waste from Buckinghamshire – was highlighted in the House of Commons yesterday (April 6), when the Conservative MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, Nadine Davies, proposed a bill addressing the proposals.

The 'Waste Recovery and Disposal Facilities (Public Consultation)' bill was brought at a 'Ten Minute Rule Bill' and as such is highly unlikely to become law, but instead aims to highlight awareness of an issue.

And, in the Commons, Ms Davies called for councils to be required to hold a local referendum before considering planning permission for new large-scale waste facilities which involved dealing with waste from more than one county area.

She said: “I am sure that the majority of people in Bedfordshire understand the need to cease landfill and to burn what rubbish is not recycled, thereby creating clean energy in the process, but they do not understand why Bedfordshire should process the waste for Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Milton Keynes, Hertfordshire or anywhere else-counties that are quite capable of providing facilities to cater for their own waste.”

Covanta's proposals to use the site for treating Buckinghamshire's waste had been chosen by Buckinghamshire county council as its preferred residual waste treatment solution (see letsrecycle.com story), but the council last month voted to rescind Covanta's preferred bidder status for the project due to a legal issue over the Rookery Pit site.

Instead, it is now expected to reopen competitive talks with both Covanta and the other final bidder, Waste Recycling Group, over the deal (see letsrecycle.com story).