Councillors in Cheshire West and Chester have agreed to go back to the drawing board to find a solution to deal with the councils residual waste.
The move comes after Cheshire West and Chester council and Cheshire East council agreed to abandon a joint project to build a dedicated waste facility following the withdrawal of 160 million in PFI support from Defra. Waste management company Viridor has been the frontrunner for the 850 million deal (see letsrecycle.com story). The councils are now pursuing separate arrangements.
“Procurement for this contract will take a very different approach to the PFI which was a lengthy, highly prescriptive process”
Councillor Lynn Riley
At a meeting on June 6, Cheshire West and Chesters executive agreed to procure a contract to dispose of waste that cannot be recycled or re-used.
The deal will run for a maximum of ten years and cover the treatment process, provision of waste transfer stations and haulage arrangements. The contract would take effect following the expiry of the current landfill contract in March 2014.
No preferred solution has been put forward and the procurement exercise will be open to all suppliers.
Different
Councillor Lynn Riley, Cheshire West and Chesters executive member for community and environment, said: Procurement for this contract will take a very different approach to the PFI which was a lengthy, highly prescriptive process, dependent on high levels of subsidy.
This time we do not have to specify a preferred solution which means we can take full advantage of the market and range of technologies to find the best solution for Cheshire West a process that served us well with our waste collection contract.
Councillor David Robinson, opposition spokesperson for community and environment, told the meeting: We are all disappointed that we have to re-start this process following the collapse of the PFI project. On the issue of cost, it would be useful to know how many waste facilities are set to come on stream in the next five or 10 years as this will influence what we pay for this contract.
Collection
Themove by Cheshire West and Cheshire council came ahead of the introduction of the council’s new recycling and waste collection service, whichis beingrolled out in the former Vale of Royal area of Cheshire this week. This area is the first to benefit from the service.
Delivered by May Gurney from Monday (June 18), the service is known Recycle First service and provides households with their first weekly recycling collection.
The kerbside-sort system allows residents to recycle a vast range of materials ranging from glass, plastic and food cartons to small electrical items, mobile phones, textiles and cooking oil.
And a separate weekly kitchen waste collection will enable food scraps and leftovers which currently make up one third of residual household waste to be recycled rather than going to landfill. Residual waste bins will continue to be collected fortnightly.
Teams have been working throughout the area over the past eight weeks to make the changes required to residents collection containers. This has been supported by a major customer awareness programme.
Councillor Riley said: The new service, designed around what our residents told us was important to them, will take recycling rates to 62% and beyond – potentially making Cheshire West and Chester one of the best performing areas in the country.
Related Links
By treating recyclable waste as a valuable resource, our partner May Gurney is maximising the quality of materials it collects to get the best possible price for them.
This keeps the cost to the taxpayer down, providing savings of more than 50m over the 14-year life of the contract.
Subscribe for free