Three companies in the running for Cambridgeshire PFI

Shanks, Waste Recycling Group and Donarbon all handed in proposals for the contract last week, although Spanish-owned firm Focsa has pulled out in order to focus on winning a contract in Cornwall.

” If there are three strong tenders it is likely we will want another look at the bidders, but if one sticks out then we may move forward with it. “
– Alan Kippax, Cambridgeshire CC
Cambridgeshire's 25-year disposal contract is being supported by 35 million in Private Finance Initiative credits from the government and is to begin in April 2007.

Alan Kippax, project manager for waste PFI at the council, told letsrecycle.com a decision on appointing a preferred bidder could be made at the end of March. However, the council could name two companies to take part in a final round of bidding.

He explained: “Our next step depends on the three bids. If there are three strong tenders it is likely we will want another look at the bidders, but if one sticks out then we may move forward with it.”

A preferred bidder would definitely be appointed by September 2006, he said, for the contract to be signed by March 2007.

Targets
Cambridgeshire produced about 290,000 tonnes of waste during 2004/05, which is expected to grow over the course of the forthcoming PFI contract, which could be worth more than 600 million.

The winning bidder for the PFI contract will have to help the county cut its landfilling of biodegradable waste from about 131,720 tonnes in the first year to 73,026 tonnes in 2013 and just 51,099 tonnes by 2020 if government targets are to be met.

In order to do this, the county council believes at least one residual waste treatment facility will be required.

Mr Kippax explained: “The county and its districts are good on the recycling front, so we hope to build on that and achieve a 50% recycling rate across the county. This contract will then deal with the remaining 50% of the waste.

“Ultimately it will be aimed at achieving landfill avoidance,” he said, adding that the amount of landfill permitted would reduce “rather frighteningly after next year”.

Companies
In recent months, WRG has proposed energy recovery facilities for contracts with both Norfolk and Kingston-upon-Hull. Shanks is known for its intentions to use mechanical biological treatment to divert material away from landfill, with such contracts as East London and Dumfries & Galloway. Local firm Donarbon, part of the Dickerson Group, runs a 500-acre waste management park north of Cambridge that includes an in-vessel composting facility.

Focsa said it had decided not to pursue the Cambridgeshire contract because of the costs involved with bidding. The company is one of two companies in the running for a PFI contract in Cornwall, and intends to focus its resources there rather than Cambridgeshire.

Tony Adamson, operation director, explained: “We reviewed the project and decided that it was not the venture for us. It is expensive to tender for contracts so we have complex evaluation criteria. We have to make sure that a contract is right for us, if we enter we want to be competitive. “