Manchester’s waste PFI delay brings bounty to consultants

This is according to a report considered by councillors at a meeting of the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority on Friday.

The PFI contract – likely to be worth more than £2 billion over 25 years – was supposed to be signed in June, but is now expected to reach financial closure this December (see letsrecycle.com story).

The report on the authority's budget for April to September 2007 notes an overall underspend of £1.3 million – because the authority is not yet paying for the PFI contract still being negotiated with preferred bidder Viridor/Laing.

But within this supposed underspend is the revelation that the authority has overspent on “advisors”, and that in the last full year up to September, the Greater Manchester Waste Authority spent £3.449 million on its consultants.

The budget report explains the delays to the contract as resulting from work to develop and evaluate the use of refuse-derived fuel at Runcorn, a “major workstream that was not anticipated” by the authority

And, the budget report warns: “The continued intensive drive towards a financial close will see yet further pressures on this cost as the initial budget was set with the target of a June close to the contract.”

The full costs of the delay to the PFI contract are not yet known, although the Authority report notes: “We are working with the advisors to produce some more reliable estimates about the expected overall cost of advisor fees, and that will be the subject of a report to a future meeting of the Authority.”

Recycling

Meanwhile, the good news discussed at the meeting on Friday was that recycling rates are up in Manchester on average. The authority – which deals with waste collected in Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford – saw overall recycling and composting for municipal waste rise to 32.% compared to 25% last year.

The improved performance came from a “great amount of public participation” in both kerbside collection schemes and at household waste recycling centres, according to authority officers.

Councillor Neil Swannick, the Chair of the Authority said: “We are thrilled to see how well Greater Manchester is doing not just in the important area of recycling, but also in the vital area of waste reduction.

“There has been a large amount of work by GMWDA and the nine collection authorities, but the largest pat on the back really has to go to the residents of Greater Manchester as these results could only have been made possible by the daily participation of residents across the conurbation,” Cllr Swannick said. 

Looking ahead to the forthcoming PFI waste contract, Cllr Swannick said: “It will be great to see these fantastic results continue and go from strength to strength once the proposed ‘world class' treatment facilities for Greater Manchester are in place.

“GMWDA's new contract for waste services will mean that even more recyclables can be extracted from the waste stream and alternatives uses will be found for waste rather than it all going to landfill. The contract will also give an even more significant push on education so that the important steps of waste reduction, reuse and recycling become even more part of routine,” he added.