Veolia in long-list for West London Waste Contract

The West London Waste Authority has announced the long-list for the new 25 year waste management contract to cover Harrow, Hounslow, Hillingdon, Ealing, Brent and Richmond. Note that bidders may make proposals on sites they control or may acquire,  and that they will be invited to submit proposals on the 'most economically advantageous technologies'. Environmentalists will be watching very carefully to see what technologies will be suggested and whether incineration will be one of them:

The West London Waste Authority (WLWA) has long-listed a total of eight bidders for a long term residual waste treatment contract covering the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, and Richmond upon Thames.

Cory Environmental Ltd, Covanta Energy Ltd, E.ON Energy from Waste AG, FCC/Waste Recycling Group Ltd, SITA UK Ltd, Veolia ES Aurora Ltd, Viridor Waste Management Ltd, and Wheelabrator Technologies Incorporated will now be invited to develop outline solutions as the next stage in the competitive dialogue process that is being employed.

The contract involves treating up to 300,000 tonnes of residual waste per year generated by a population of 1.4 million people, and covers all aspects of treatment including any necessary transport, the operation of transfer stations, and contracts for outputs such as compost, refuse-derived fuel, recyclates etc.

Bids were invited from “single entity” companies, consortia, or joint ventures. The WLWA has offered the three waste transfer stations within its direct control as part of the procurement but also welcomed proposals involving sites within bidders’ control or which they intend to acquire.

Bidders will now be invited to present whatever proposals they feel are the most economically advantageous technology to meet WLWA’s output specification but the authority is stipulating that the technology must be proven in operation on a municipal scale.

The next stage of the tender process will narrow bidders to three or four that will present detailed solutions in the first part of 2012. Two final bidders will submit final tenders in Autumn 2012, and the preferred bidder will be selected in Spring 2013.

Veolia concerns should be taken seriously - Lib Dem councillor

Cllr Ann Hunter (Lib Dem) brought up the issue of the West London Waste contract at the Council meeting on July 11th with a question to Cllr James Powney. The minutes of the meeting have just been published and the exchange is set out below:

Councillor Hunter stated that she understood lead members had received representations from residents asking that Veolia be excluded from the current procurement exercise for waste disposal because they felt the company had demonstrated racist recruitment practices with reference to its activities in the West Bank and Israel. Councillor Powney replied that West London Waste was embarking on a waste procurement exercise and it could not jeopardise this by not following the proper processes. Councillor Hunter responded by saying that she would like to see West London Waste take the concerns of local residents seriously and that she had been shocked to see the advertisement for jobs on the Jerusalem Light Railway which effectively prevented the majority of local Palestinian citizens from applying. She asked how it could be allowed that Veolia was treated as a suitable contractor and felt that the matter needed to be given serious consideration.

 Residents who share the concerns should see the letter Human Right campaigners are sending to the Council HERE and if they wish to sign it send their name. e-mail and postcode to:nernier@gmail.com