The GMWDA's director of procurement Tim Judson told letsrecycle.com this week that the preferred bidder negotiations with the consortium were going “well” and that it was “close” to securing the deal.
We have taken appropriate action to make sure we don't run into financial problems associated with delay
Tim Judson, GMWDA
However, Mr Judson would not reveal a date for the signing of the colossal contract despite it being timetabled to start by the end of June (see letsrecycle.com story) and said an announcement would come following the next GMWDA meeting on June 29th.
He said: “We are still in preferred bidder negotiations and will make an announcement towards the end of this month. We are close and everything is going well. We are not going to hit the middle of this month but we will probably not be a long way off that.”
Facilities
Under the proposed contract, which is worth around £3 billion over 25 years, Viridor and Laing would be responsible for handling 1.4 million tonnes of municipal waste a year. The deal involves £300 million of capital investment in around 30-40 new waste facilities including a mechanical biological treatment plant (see letsrecycle.com story) .
Mr Judson said: “We are progressing a whole raft of planning applications. We won't have all in place before financial close but it is at an advanced stage.”
Mr Judson explained that if the contract was late, the authority would be prepared.
He said: “We have taken appropriate action to make sure we don't run into financial problems associated with delay and the existing contracts with Greater Manchester Waste Ltd can also be extended as long as required.”
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