Scottish Borders Council's taxpayers will face a bill of £47 million over the next five years to solve the region's waste treatment issues which were exacerbated by the collapse of another multi-million pounds contract four years ago.
A press statement issued by the council earlier this week confirmed around 42,000 tonnes of municipal waste produced in the Borders each year was to be hauled by road the 50 miles from Galashiels to Forth, on the West Lothian-Lanarkshire border to be treated for disposal.
A procurement expert told Not Just Sheep & Rugby: "Carbon footprint may not look too good. I would estimate around 30 trips a week, assuming 27 tonnes per load.On the plus side local waste will not be going to landfill".
But the upbeat statement, heralding the end of landfilling rubbish at Easter Langlee's tip after half a century, made no mention of the value of four separate contract lots handed to Forth-based Levenseat Ltd. The successful bidders for a five-year contract originally advertised by SBC in June 2018 were given the deal on June 20th 2019, according to newly published paperwork.
Readers of these columns will know the council was forced down the road haulage route after the disastrous collapse of SBC's liaison with New Earth Solutions and offshore funders New Earth Recycling & Renewables [Infrastructure] PLC (NERR) based in the Isle of Man.
Both of those entities are now bankrupt and dissolved with an ongoing investigation into the affairs of the investment fund by Manx liquidators Deloitte. NERR was selected by Borders councillors to bankroll a £23 million waste treatment plant at Easter Langlee which was meant to make SBC the leading waste management authority in Scotland.
However, after changes to the original contract were rubber stamped by the elected members the preferred brand of technology to be installed at Galashiels could not be made to function commercially and NERR could not come up with the cash even though its directors and managers were picking up millions of pounds in fees over the lifetime of the contract with the Borders council.
Eventually the penny dropped and the contract was terminated. But not until SBC had squandered at least £2.4 million on expensive consultants and lawyers as they attempted to rescue the catastrophic project.
A revised waste strategy based on hundreds of lorry journeys each year was approved in August 2015, the New Earth debacle having been finally put to rest in February of that year.
The costs associated with the Levenseat deal were revealed today with the publication of the statutory contracts award notice on the Public Contracts Scotland website.
When it invited bids last June SBC wrote in its contract notice: "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." The new station has cost a further £5.5 million, another necessity following the New Earth fiasco.
The notice added: "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 proposed contract was divided into four lots - Lot 1 – municipal residual waste; Lot 2 – bulky residual waste; Lot 3 – Commercial & demolition waste; Lot 4 – Street Cleansing waste. A five year deal also contained an option for the parties to agree to extend 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.
By winning all four lots on offer Levenseat has secured a £47 million contract over the five years from July 1st 2019. The price for lot one which attracted four bids was £33.75 million. The treatment of bulky residual waste (£10.5 million) received two offers. Levenseat were the only bidders for lots three and four worth £1.5 million and £1.25 million respectively.
As well as the multiple trips which will now be needed to Levenseat's Forth treatment centre SBC sends its dry recyclabes on an even longer journey - to J B Recycling's premises in Hartlepool, 108 miles from Galashiels.
No comments:
Post a Comment