The price of failure - 15 million pounds?

EXCLUSIVE by DOUG COLLIE

Scottish Borders Council's failure to develop and deliver a waste treatment plant to deal with the region's annual "output" of 42,000 tonnes of residual rubbish is set to result in an additional bill of up to 15 million pounds over ten years for council taxpayers.

A contract notice published by the authority this week estimates it will cost 50 million pounds to export around 420,000 tonnes of municipal waste - excluding recyclables - during the decade from mid 2019.

The annual cost will be five million pounds, and research and calculations carried out by Not Just Sheep & Rugby show the cost of transporting and treating the residual waste will work out at 119 pounds per tonne. The preferred option is also certain to add to SBC's carbon footprint with a fleet of lorries required to haul the garbage to its final destination.

But figures linked to the proposal to build a Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plant at Easter Langlee, Galashiels, to divert the residual waste from landfill show the cost per tonne would have been just 83 pounds per tonne. The 119 pounds figure now in prospect is some 29.8% higher than the MBT facility costing.

The savings over a year when the two disposal methods are compared is 1.512 million pounds in favour of the MBT which adds up to 15.140 million pounds in ten years.

A confidential report presented to Borders councillors in 2011, which management attempted to keep under wraps, estimated the Galashiels treatment plant would deliver savings of 26 million pounds against the so-called 'do nothing' scenario of continuing to landfill the residual waste.

But as we have reported several times previously, councillors voted in private in 2012 to abandon the MBT-only option in favour of a combined Advanced Thermal Treatment (ATT) plant in a bid to produce power by incinerating the rubbish.

The Deed of Variation which allowed contractors New Earth Solutions to avoid having to stick to the original 2011 deal was to prove disastrous and expensive. The company's ATT system failed to function, their offshore funders could not come up with the extra money, and the complete venture was abandoned in February 2015 with the council and its residents 2.4 million pounds out of pocket for no return.

This week's notice, inviting bids for the 50 million pounds contract, says: The Authority currently manages around 42,000 tonnes of residual waste per annum. The majority of this waste is deposited at Easter Langlee landfill site which is owned and operated by the Authority. A decision was taken not to expand the Easter Langlee landfill site once its current capacity is exhausted (by mid-2019) but instead develop a new Waste Transfer Station in its place.

"This will enable the Authority to comply with the ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill which comes into effect from 1st January 2021 by exporting waste out of the Borders for treatment and disposal. The Authority reserves the right to take responsibility for haulage for part of the Contract Waste to the Contractors Delivery Site in order to gain benefits through utilising its own Authority Haulage Vehicles. The Authority is looking for a haulage, treatment and disposal solution that provides a reliable and robust means of managing contract waste from mid-2019."

The contract is divided into four lots, namely: Lot 1 - Municipal Residual Waste - Duration in months: 60 There is an option for the parties to agree to extending the Contract on a yearly basis up to a maximum of a further five years subject to the terms within the Conditions of Contract after expiry of the initial term. Lot 2 - Bulky Residual Waste;   Lot 3 - Commercial and Demolition Waste;

Lot 4 - Street Cleansing Waste.

It is understood the option of exporting residual waste out of the Borders by road was dismissed on grounds of cost during a project analysis of various options undertaken in 2009/10. But in the absence of a MBT plant and with an end to landfilling looming large it now appears to be the only game in town.

The financial implications for Borders local government appear likely to run into many millions of pounds thanks to the council's decision to get into a bed with debt-ridden New Earth Solutions and then to pass up the chance to construct a tried and tested form of waste disposal facility to serve the region. The 2.4 million pounds of admitted losses so far may well rocket to more than 17 million pounds ten years from now.