A consortium led by SITA UK was last night (September 15) named as preferred bidder for the South Tyne and Wear Waste Partnership's multi-million pound PFI-funded waste contract, which is set to involve the development of a 190,000 tonne-a-year capacity energy-from-waste incinerator on Teesside.
The company's bid, which also involves Royal Bank of Scotland and Catalyst Lend Lease, was chosen by the three-council partnership ahead of the other remaining bidder – United Utilities – to deliver the 25-year contract. The deal also involves developing three waste transfer stations in the area.
We are looking forward to a fruitful partnership that will allow us to significantly reduce our reliance on landfill
John Robinson, South Tyne and Wear Waste Partnership
The South Tyne and Wear Waste Partnership is made up of Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland councils. It will now work with the preferred bidder to reach financial close on the deal – which is worth in the region of £543 million and £682 million – by the end of 2010.
John Robinson, group director for local environmental services at Gateshead council and leader of the Partnership, welcomed the news that the procurement had reached the preferred bidder stage and thanked both the two final bidders for their efforts.
He said: “There is still work to do with the SITA Consortium as we aim to reach financial close before the end of the year.
“We are looking forward to a fruitful partnership that will allow us to significantly reduce our reliance on landfill and provide our residents with a greener waste management service.”
Procurements
The waste PFI contract is one of a number of waste procurements being carried out under the auspices of the Partnership, with Gateshead and South Tyneside announcing in May 2010 that they had jointly awarded waste company H W Martin a three-year contract to sort recyclables (see letsrecycle.com story ).
The Partnership has £1.6 billion plans to manage the 355,000 tonnes of waste created in the area every year.
It aims to increase the three councils' recycling rate to 50% by 2020 – which would bring it in line with the targets set under the revised EU Waste Framework Directive -and commingled recycling at the kerbside is currently being introduced across the Partnership area.
Defra awarded the councils £73.5 million in PFI credits in July 2008 towards the costs of procuring the waste PFI contract, and the procurement process has seen the list of bidders gradually whittled down from a longlist of eight (see letsrecycle.com story).
SITA UK
The councils' decision to select the SITA consortium was welcomed by the company's chief executive, David Palmer-Jones, who said: “We are delighted that the South Tyne and Wear Waste Partnership has selected SITA UK as preferred bidder for this major 25 year PFI project.
“We have worked hard to develop a competitive proposal and we are looking forward to developing new and modern infrastructure to manage residual waste from Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland.”
Mr Palmer-Jones stressed that SITA UK would consult “widely” with local residents and stakeholders as it brought its proposals forward, and would also develop an education and visitor centre, which would be linked to one of the waste transfer stations.
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