A spokesman for the French-owned firm said: “We can confirm that we are seeking an injunction from the High Court which, if successful, would ensure the procurement process for the Thurrock Council collection services contract is rerun.
“This approach is designed to ensure that local residents gain 'Best Value' from this process in terms of both the quality and value for money of their recycling and refuse collection services,” he added.
It is believed that the council decided to take the contract in-house to obtain greater control over the service and flexibility in how it is deployed, as well making savings in the region of £2 million, but Veolia collection crews have suggested additional costs will be incurred by the council taking over operations.
Thurrock council launched the procurement for a new seven-year waste and recycling collection contract – which also covers its 40 bring sites – as one of six lots covering a wide range of waste services in April 2009.
Veolia currently provides all the services, which also include managing the council's civic amenity sites, sorting recyclates and disposing of residual waste.
Value
The Official Journal of the European Union notice advertising the contract last year reveals that the six lots have a combined value of between £67.55 million and £80.85 million, with the waste and recycling collection lot representing by far the most valuable single part of the deal.
According to the notice, the collections contract involves collecting residual waste, commingled recyclables and organic waste from 56,000 households, totalling 56,000 tonnes, 15,000 tonnes and 8,000 tonnes of material respectively a year.
It also covers the collection of 13,000 tonnes of residual waste and 2,000 tonnes of recycling every year from Thurrock's 13,000 multi-occupancy households.
Council
Commenting on the situation, the council spokeswoman confirmed that Veolia had lodged High Court proceedings over the waste collection contract.
A Thurrock Council spokeswoman said: “As part of a dispute regarding the process for granting a new contract for waste collection within the borough, Veolia have lodged a claim against the council at the High Court.
“As yet no hearing date has been set and it would be inappropriate for the council to comment further,” she added.
News of Veolia's legal action comes just days after a four-day High Court hearing in relation to a claim for damages launched by SITA UK against the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority's procurement of its waste PFI contract came to an end (see letsrecycle.com story).
Successful bidders
The decision on who will be responsible for the Thurrock services from April 2010 was made by the council's cabinet in December 2009, but a spokeswoman for the council was not able yesterday to reveal the names of the successful bidders.
“I cannot give any indication as to when we might be able to give company names, although it is my understanding that we cannot release any information until after the claim from Veolia is resolved (and it may even be that after that we are still restricted by what we can say),” she said.
However, it is understood, that Veolia was chosen to continue to manage the council's two civic amenity sites, dispose of its residual waste and reprocess garden waste, while Nordic Recycling in Tilbury was chosen to sort kerbside collected recyclables and Verdant will deal with garden and food waste.
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