At a Cabinet meeting last month, councillors from the West Midlands' local authority opted not to pursue the solo PFI option, which would have seen the council apply for government funding to support an £800 million integrated waste management contract.
We have entered into an agreement with Staffordshire county council to secure 50-60,000 tonnes per year of EfW incineration capacity for residual waste at their proposed 'W2R' facility from 2013-14 onwards
Jan Britton, Sandwell MBC
Their decision follows a consultation, held in May 2008, where stakeholders were asked whether the council should pursue the PFI funding option or choose a 'go-it-alone' public-private partnership (see letsrecycle.com story).
It has emerged that, at last month's meeting, it was decided that an independent PFI application from Sandwell “offered only marginal benefit”, and instead the council would pursue a two-pronged approach to delivering its Waste Improvement Plan, which was agreed in June 2007.
This would focus on procuring an integrated recycling and waste collection and treatment contract, also including street cleansing services, while also seeking an agreement with Staffordshire county council to use its proposed 300,000 tonne capacity PFI Energy-from-Waste facility for up to 60,000 tonnes of Sandwell's residual waste.
Explaining the decision, minutes from the Cabinet meeting explain that “moving to support the Staffordshire PFI project would offer significant benefit by providing the most cost-effective and secure residual waste disposal solution, whilst maintaining Sandwell's ability to adopt a market-led approach to the procurement of the remainder of an integrated package of waste and cleansing services.”
With the meeting notes referring to a “very narrow window of opportunity” to secure agreement with Staffordshire, Sandwell's council's head of highways and environment, Jan Britton, told letsrecycle.com that this had now taken place.
“We have entered into an agreement with Staffordshire county council to secure 50-60,000 tonnes per year of EfW incineration capacity for residual waste at their proposed 'W2R' facility from 2013-14 onwards,” he confirmed.
“We look forward to working with Staffordshire and their other partners, Warwickshire county council and Walsall metropolitan borough council, on this project,” he added.
Staffordshire is currently seeking PFI funding for a £600 million PFI contract which is expected to last for 25 years (see letsrecycle.com story), and has been labelled ' Project W2R' or 'Waste to Resources'.
It submitted its Outline Business Case for the project in March 2008, with a site at Four Ashes, in the south of the county, included as the reference location for the Energy-from-Waste facility, which, if funding is approved, it hopes to have up-and-running by 2013.
Integrated contact
Mr Britton also explained that clearer plans had now been put in place regarding the integrated waste contract aspect of the council's proposals, and it planned to advertise for tenders for the contract in the Official Journal of the European Union next month, or in September “at the latest”.
“The capacity we have secured at Staffordshire amounts to approximately 35% of Sandwell's municipal waste arisings. So we still have a pressing need to increase our recycling/composting rate to 50% by 2014-15,” he explained.
“Therefore, all the rest of our waste/recycling collection and treatment requirements (and street cleansing) will be contained in our own OJEU procurement process – between Staffordshire and our own procurement process we will deliver all of the requirements of our Waste Improvement Plan,” he added.
The plan's goal of a 50% recycling and composting rate by 2015 would represent a dramatic improvement for the council, which only achieved a 20.39% rate in 2006-07.
Sandwell is expecting a 20-month procurement process for the integrated services, with the contract beginning in April or May 2010 and lasting for between 20 and 30 years.
Pikehelve
Sandwell has already earmarked industrial land at Pikehelve as the proposed site for an 'Eco Park' to offer recycling and composting facilities.
Mr Britton explained that, despite the deal with Staffordshire, it still needed “access to dry recycling and composting treatment facilities”, as well as a bulking and transfer station for sending residual waste to its neighbouring council's EfW facility.
While he added that “we will not know exactly what will be built at the Pikehelve site until we complete the procurement process,” he revealed that there was the potential to use the land for further waste management facilities.
“We are also interested in exploring options for over-capacity facilities that meet wider needs than those of just the council,” he explained. “For example, recent regional studies suggest that there is a significant need for food waste treatment capacity in the West Midlands.
“We could envisage a situation where a contractor brings forward an in-vessel composting or anaerobic digester proposal for the Pikehelve site, which is large enough to meet the council's need for commingled kitchen/garden waste treatment, plus commercial food waste treatment,” he said.
The council is staging an exhibition today (July 15), to allow residents to have their say on the 'Eco Park' proposals, with a view to submitting a planning application around the same time as the waste and recycling services contract is advertised in the OJEU.
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