Kings Lynn and West Norfolk borough council is seeking progress from its contractor Material Works on its residual waste deal, as a site has not been secured for a proposed treatment facility.
Chester-based waste management firm Material Works signed a 16-year contract with the council to construct and operate a facility to treat 30,000 tonnes of residual waste and 5,000 tonnes of food waste from the borough in December 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).
And, in January 2014, the company announced that it had secured around 100 million funding to construct the groundbreaking facility, which would also process 35,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial waste in addition to household black bag material (see letsrecycle.com story).
Material Works managing director Robert Billson told letsrecycle.com at the time that the bulk of the funding was from Pan Eurasia, a UK-based funder with Sri Lankan connections, and that he hoped to start construction on the waste treatment plant this summer.
However, council documents published last month reveal that this funding has yet to reach Material Works, although the councils chief executive and corporate project officer have reportedly had sight of a line of credit that Material Works had secured and this was supplied by one of the four main banks on the High Street.
The documents explain that until funds actually flow into Material Works current account, the firm remains a shell company meaning that Material Works can not do any business nor have any assets. The firm is currently listed as a dormant company on the Companies House database.
According to the council documents: There was no reason to suggest that the flow of funds would not happen soon, but it was important to see progress on either the land purchase or the provision of the demonstrator plant as both of these required significant sums of money, which in the past Material Works had not been able to secure.
‘While I am not worried at the present time, obviously I do want to see progress and we do want to see this plant built and the boroughs waste going to it. As a customer we want the facility and we want to get the ball rolling.’
Brian Long, deputy leader of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk borough council
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, deputy leader of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Brian Long, said that while it was disappointing that more progress on the contract had not been made over the last few months, he was still confident the facility would be built.
He said: While I am not worried at the present time, obviously I do want to see progress and we do want to see this plant built and the boroughs waste going to it. As a customer we want the facility and we want to get the ball rolling.
When asked whether Material Works could deliver on the contract, cllr Long said: I do believe they can. Obviously they wont be able to if they cannot provide the funding. But if I was going to fund anybody 100 million I would want surety, so the plans and the piece of land will need to show surety that the facility can be delivered.
He added: I really, really expect stuff to start happening very soon. I dont think as a council we will pull the plug on the contract we will leave it open for Material Works to deliver because some of the criteria we asked them to meet has been met it [the waste treatment process] does meet End of Waste criteria, for instance.
Demonstrator plant
Material Works was also set to construct a 3.5 million demonstrator plant to prove that the technology intended for the proposed treatment facility is workable, but this has also not been completed.
But cllr Long said that the demonstrator plant was no longer necessary as the technology doesnt need proving to anybody.
According to cllr Long, the demonstrator plant was largely intended to allay Norfolk county councils suspicion of the technology after the borough council backed out of the county-wide Willows EfW contract.
The final Material Works plant will reportedly achieve a 90% recycling rate from black bag waste, but in a battle over waste treatment solutions in the county the proposals were criticised by Norfolk county council for using untried and untested technology (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, Norfolk county council was recently forced to scrap plans for its controversial Willows energy-from-waste plant, which was also set to be developed in Kings Lynn. Some of the countys waste may now instead be sent to Suffolk for treatment (see letsrecycle.com story).
Asked whether the collapse of the county councils EfW contract would affect the Material Works contract, cllr Long – who is also a member of the county council – said: It makes what we are doing in West Norfolk even more important as they [the county council] dont seem to have a plan B.
Informal Working Group
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An informal borough council working group was set up in October 2013 to monitor the likelihood of the council needing alternative technologies for dealing with black bag waste, and aimed to present its final report to the Regeneration, Environment and Community Panel in March/April 2014.
But, since Material Works 100 million funding was announced in January, the working group has shifted its focus instead to monitoring the current contract with Material Works.
According to the documents, it is hoped that the next meeting will be held once a planning application for Material Works waste treatment facility has been submitted, which is expected in late Summer.
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