Closed-door meetings on bidder for waste incineration scheme

MEETINGS took place behind closed doors at three South Yorkshire councils yesterday to decide the preferred bidder for a controversial waste incinerator in the Dearne Valley.

But it will be next month before an announcement is made about which firm has been awarded the contract to build a new waste disposal plant for Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster Councils because it still needs Government approval.

Councillors at Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham councils held special cabinet meetings, closed to the public, to discuss whether SITA UK Lend Lease or 3SE – a consortium of Shanks Group and Scottish and Southern Energy – should win the contract to build the plant at Bolton Road in Manvers.

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The plant, which could open in 2015, would process an expected 200,000 tons of household waste from the three authorities each year.

One statement on the outcome of the meetings was issued jointly by the councils yesterday afternoon, which read: “Cabinet meetings are being held in Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham to consider the final choice of a major scheme to treat leftover household waste from the three boroughs rather than send it to landfill.

“Two different proposals by leading specialist waste organisations SITA Lend Lease and 3SE have been evaluated according to a fixed set of criteria.

“The proposed site for the waste facility is at Bolton Road, Manvers, in Rotherham. For legal reasons, the successful bidder will not be officially announced until early April.

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“This is because the decision is subject to a call-in period by the councils’ scrutiny panels, and final approval by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Defra.”

Four waste organisations originally put forward different proposals to build and run the Manvers plant, which has secured £77.4m of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding from the Government.

The Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (BDR) Waste Partnership, made up of the three councils, then narrowed the bidders down to a shortlist of two.

The proposal by SITA UK Land Lease involves developing the Dearne Valley Treatment and Energy Centre, which would have a recycling area and an “energy recovery” area with a tall chimney.

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That energy recovery area would burn waste processed by the plant to produce electricity.

If SITA’s scheme is selected, more than 60 new permanent jobs would be created in Manvers, as well as a further 300 temporary jobs during the construction period.

The rival plan from 3SE would not involve incineration and would instead see the waste “biodried” and turned into fuel to be burned at the Ferrybridge power station, near Knottingley.

This scheme would create more than 40 jobs at Manvers and a further 25 at Ferrybridge.

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Opposition to the waste plant has come from campaigners who say that either of the schemes could have health implications.

They have also raised concerns about the extra traffic that would be generated by lorries taking waste to and from the facility, and the potential for increased noise and odour created by the plant.

Groups set up to fight the plant include Dearne Valley AIM (Against Incineration in Manvers).

Coun Richard Russell, chairman of the waste partnership, has previously said that it is “scaremongering to suggest that any future development would be anything less than absolutely safe” and added: “Whatever proposal is put forward, will be subject to planning permission.

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“It will have to meet the most stringent World Health Organisation regulations on public protection. People should be reassured that public health and safety is the first priority for the partnership but, like all local authorities across the UK, we have to act now to tackle the issue of what to do with leftover household waste.”