The company confirmed today (March 2) that it had begun proceedings in the Chancery Division of the High Court in relation to what it believed had been “unlawful management” by the Essex council of the procurement process it has run for the seven year deal, which is set to begin next month.
This comes after the company withdrew its initial application for an injunction to stop the award of the contract and force the procurement process to be rerun (see letsrecycle.com story) on February 18, for reasons it would not specify.
In a statement, a spokesman for the company said: “We have issued fresh legal proceedings against Thurrock Council in the Chancery Division of the High Court.
“These new proceedings relate to what we believe to be the Council's unlawful management of the procurement process.”
The spokesman added that the company, whose current deal providing Thurrock's waste and recycling collections expires at the end of this month, was also “maintaining and pursuing” the damages claim it made against the council on February 8 as part of its original legal action over the contract.
It is understood that the company withdrew its initial injunction because it believed the council had halted the procurement before formally awarding the contract, but has launched the fresh action as a result of the council deciding to continue pursuing the in-house option.
Under its initial injunction, the French-owned company had sought to force the council to re-run the procurement process for the collection service, with Veolia collection crews claiming that additional costs would be involved in the council taking the service in-house.
However, the council has consistently defended its position, with interim chief executive, Bob Coomber, claiming it remained committed to pursuing the changes to its service – and the cost savings and improvements this would result in.
“Having fully reviewed the tender process, we remain sure that we can robustly defend our position if necessary,” he said.
“We regret that Veolia resorted to legal action, but we will not be deterred from achieving the cost savings and improvements in service upon which the restructuring of our waste services was predicated,” he added.
No dates for any court hearing have been announced yet.
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