SWaMP council to tender alone for waste contract

Newry and Mourne council is planning to open procurement for the treatment of black bag waste following the collapse of the Southern Waste Management Partnership (SWaMP2008 Ltd)s tendering process last year.

The council is one of eight local authorities in the South and West of Northern Ireland that make up SWaMP, which had been tendering for a 500 million 25-year residual waste treatment contract since 2009.

However, the partnership announced in October 2012 that that it was terminating the procurement process with great regret due to a legal challenge brought against it relating to the one remaining bidder for the contract (see letsrecycle.com story), although this legal challenge has since been withdrawn.

Now, Newry and Mourne council is set to go out to tender separately for a contract to deal with an estimated 26,000 tonnes per year of household waste in the district, which is currently sent to a council-run landfill site.

The move has been welcomed by Newry and Mourne councillor, Connaire McGreevy, who stepped down as SWaMP chair at the partnerships AGM in August 2013. He was replaced as chair by another Newry and Mourne district councillor, Jack Patterson.

According to Councillor McGreevy, the tender set to be launched in the coming weeks is for a five year contract. He told letsrecycle.com that the contract would likely be worth a minimum of 10 million per year and that the council was open-minded about the type of waste infrastructure bidders might put forward.

Landfill

Councillor McGreevy added that although the other seven SWaMP members were currently discussing whether to enter another procurement process for a residual waste contract, Newry and Mourne council decided to tender separately as its landfill site at Aughnagun is set to close next year.

He said: The reason why we are going out on our own is because we are closing down our landfill site next April, so we need a way to deal with our waste.

But the district councillor said that Newry and Mourne council would reserve the right to be part of a possible future SWaMP residual waste contract if it did not find a suitable bidder through its own tendering process.

When asked by letsrecycle.com whether the partnership was planning another tendering process for a residual waste contract, SWaMP technical officer, Jason Patterson, told letsrecycle.com: We are looking at other options but we have nothing to announce at the moment.

‘Hardship’

Councillor McGreevy said that after the collapse of the SWaMP tendering process, residents had been forced to endure real hardship and inconvenience to their daily lives as a result of the waste disposal issue.

But, he added: Now that the council is in a position to once again examine the widest possible range of waste disposal options the focus has to be on getting a solution that delivers value on all fronts.

He said that the private sector had developed many state of the art technological solutions and that the council must now identify a provider to help it meet crucial environmental targets.

Just as important will be the lowering of all associated costs than the current method of simply using landfill to tackle a problem that by its very nature will continue to expand.

Legal challenge

After three of the final four bidders withdrew from SWaMPs procurement process in 2010 and 2011, the one remaining bidder, Irish construction and engineering firm Quinn Group Limited, announced plans to strengthen its bid (see letsrecycle.com story).

But it was claimed that the proposed changes to Quinn groups bid were in breach of employment law, which led to a legal challenge brought against the SWaMP by waste management firm Natural Waste Products (NWP) part of the Biffa-led consortium shortlisted for the contract in October 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).

As a result, the partnership announced in October 2012 that it was terminating the procurement as the interests of its stakeholders were not best served by an expensive, lengthy and ultimately uncertain legal process (see letsrecycle.com story).

Quinn Group had been proposing to develop a series of waste transfer stations and a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant at Lisbane in County Armagh, for which it had been granted planning permission, but these plans were cancelled.

SWaMP2008 comprised: Armagh city & borough council; Banbridge district council; Cookstown district council; Craigavon borough council; Dungannon & South Tyrone borough council; Fermanagh district council; Newry & Mourne district council; and, Omagh district council.