Three firms vie for South London contract

The three are understood to be: Amey, Biffa and Veolia, who have all reached the latest stage of the South London Waste Partnership’s joint procurement on waste collections.  Potential other earlier contenders are also understood to have included Kier and Serco.

Launched in late 2014, the procurement comes as part of SLWP’s ‘Smarter Council’ programme to address the £40 million funding gap from central government projected across the authorities by 2018/19.

By working together, the councils will each initially pay an estimated £400,000 towards the procurement – with an aim to generate combined savings of up to £1 million per year once the joint contract begins in April 2017.

To drive greater efficiency, the four boroughs have explored the merits of procuring services in partnership – though this does not automatically require all the councils to need the same service.

Croydon and Kingston for instance are not interested in pursuing the second lot of the contract which covers parks and ground maintenance, preferring to remain with their existing contractors.

Kingston

At present, the councils operate varying waste and recycling systems under different contracts. This month, Kingston switched from weekly to fortnightly recycling collections in a change expected to save £4.2 million over the next seven years under a renegotiation with Veolia (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, in Croydon – where Veolia also carries out collections – crews have divided the borough into eight ‘sub’ patches to ensure ‘better, faster’ weekly recycling and refuse rounds (see letsrecycle.com story).

Stuart Collins, councillor for Croydon and chair of the SLWP joint waste committee, declined to name the bidders but told letsrecycle.com each contractor had put forward their own ideas for how waste and recycling should be collected as part of the contract.

He added that although Croydon’s 15-year collection contract with Veolia is not due to end until 2018, the option to align the roll out of the new contract alongside the three other boroughs had not been ruled out.

Viridor

Recyclables will meanwhile continue to be processed at Viridor’s materials recycling facility (MRF) in Crayford. However, the councillor suggested that this too may be open to future reappraisal depending on any contamination issues that arise from an integrated system.

Viridor is the chosen contractor to operate the £205 million energy recovery facility in Beddington, which is on course to treat all 300,000 tonnes of residual waste arisings from across the SLWP from 2018.

Construction began in December 2015 following a long-running planning dispute which saw the courts side in favour of the development of the facility earlier in 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story).

A preferred bidder for the collection contract is due to be announced in May. The contract will be officially awarded to one of the chosen bidders in September.