Todays (April 5) announcement means that just two bidders are now in the running for the 25-year deal, which will involve the development of infrastructure to treat an estimated 200,000 tonnes-a-year of residual waste from four councils in the south-west of the capital.
The two remaining bidders for the contract, which is believed to be worth around 990 million, are:
Viridor, the Taunton-based waste management company;
and, Waste Recycling Group, the waste company which is part of Spanish firm FCC.
Veolia had been named alongside Viridor and WRG on a three bidder shortlist for the contract in September 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Viridor and WRG have now been invited to advance into the final round of meetings with the Partnerships procurement team under the competitive dialogue process being used to procure the contract.
This final stage will allow them to put the finishing touches to their proposals before they submit Final Tenders for the contract in the summer.
The South London Waste Partnership (SLWP), which comprises Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton councils, is continuing its procurement process despite the withdrawal of 112.9 million of Defra PFI funding for the project as part of last Octobers Spending Review (see letsrecycle.com story).
That announcement prompted the SLWP to stress that the PFI support was not essential to the procurement process, claiming that the withdrawal of the money could potentially allow it to extract even more value-for-money from the deal (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on todays announcement, the chair of the South London Waste Partnership joint committee, councillor Andrew Judge, said: This is a huge contract both in terms of investment and in terms of its importance in allowing the four partner boroughs to meet their statutory targets around landfill waste reduction.
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The Partnership has worked hard to whittle down the seven bidders who started the process back in 2009 to the two who now remain. We are entering the final stage of procurement negotiations, confident that we will be able to deliver a waste treatment solution that is more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable than landfill.
The Partnership aims to announce its chosen bidder in early 2012.
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