Leicestershire moves forward with 130 million PFI

Next Tuesday (April 8) the council's cabinet will be asked to approve the submission of an outline business case (OBC) to Defra that will attempt to secure PFI credits to fund up to 50% of the scheme's costs.

If cabinet approval is given, the council aims to submit the OBC to the department by the end of this month, before inviting interest from companies in September and formal bids a month later.

The OBC is the next stage for a project which saw the initial expression of interest for the PFI submitted to government late last year (see letsrecycle.com story).

The council has targeted February 2010 as the deadline for selecting a preferred bidder, with a contract formally awarded in May of the same year, and the new waste treatment facility opened by April 2015.

Councillor Nick Rushton, the cabinet's spokesman on waste, said: “We want to find the best process to treat waste and reduce the amount that is landfilled. No process is being specified at this stage, to allow potential bidders to come up with a range of proposals.

“Although no site has been identified, the county council is finalising its thinking on giving broad guidance where such facilities could go, ” he added.

Options

Leicestershire county council has stressed that it is examining various options, including mechanical biological treatment and anaerobic digestion, for the treatment of up to 180,000 tonnes of waste annually that would otherwise be sent to landfill.

However, it has previously said that its preferred option is an Energy from Waste plant, along with a waste transfer station (see letsrecycle.com story).

In the report to be submitted to the cabinet next week, it reiterates that EfW “continues to be the best financial option for the council, both in terms of total expenditure and the accompanying reduction in financial uncertainty”.

“However, it should be noted that if the market for outputs is developed in future, MBT technologies may have the potential to be judged much more favourably, on economic grounds, in the actual procurement process,” it adds.

A site for the facility is yet to be finalised, but the council has identified its existing Whetstone waste site, south of Leicester, as a possible location.

The report states: “The County Council has in its ownership a site at Whetstone that incorporates a waste transfer station that was a former incineration facility and was identified as possibly being suitable to accommodate a new residual waste treatment facility.

“An assessment by independent advisors concluded that the Whetstone site is suitable and the OBC therefore proposes that the project moves forward on the basis that this site constitutes the reference site, but providing full opportunity for other sites to come forward during the procurement process, ” it adds.

Proposals 

If a PFI contract does move forward, it would last for 25 years from the opening of any new waste treatment facility.

The council's current proposals are based around the county achieving a 50% target for recycling and composting by 2010, increasing to 58% by 2017.

Next week's meeting will also involve discussions on the council's waste development framework, part of which is intended to identify sites for new waste facilities, including the PFI project.

The council is working towards the submission of a core strategy for the framework to government next month, with the section of the framework specific to sites expected to move forward next year.