The Essex Waste Partnership has today (October 29) been awarded £100.9 million in PFI funds by Defra for a residual waste treatment project based around proposals to develop a 350,000 tonne-a-year capacity mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility. The partnership will create a real incentive for the local authorities and industry to work together to reduce waste Dan Norris MP The partnership - which is made up Essex county council, 12 district councils and Southend-on-Sea borough council - has already secured a site for the facility to be built on Courtauld Road in Basildon, with appropriate planning permission. Join discussion...

Local authorities may increasingly decide to act as commercial lenders on major waste infrastructure deals as the pot of PFI money begins to dry up, a waste project finance expert claimed yesterday Join discussion...

North Yorkshire and City of York councils have become the latest local authorities to admit that the economic downturn has contributed to a delay in the procurement of their PFI waste contract. The councils, which received £65 million in PFI funds to jointly procure waste treatment infrastructure more than two years ago (see letsrecycle.com story), had hoped to invite final tenders from the two remaining bidders for the 25-year deal in December 2008 Join discussion...

Delays to the eventual signing of Greater Manchester’s Waste Disposal Authority’s (GMWDA) £3.8bn 25-year private finance initiative deal (PFI) cost its ten member councils an extra £441,000 in advisory fees last year, according to the authority’s latest set of accounts. GMWDA blamed the charge on a “delay in reaching the final close” for the PFI deal, Join discussion...

East Riding and Hull City Councils have scrapped plans to procure their proposed energy from waste (EfW) facility as a PFI and have withdrawn an application for PFI credits. The councils had applied to Defra for £73.7 million in credits in November last year, but the application has now been withdrawn. Join discussion...

Wardell Armstrong LLP, a leading independent engineering consultancy specialising in environmental development and management, has played a key role in securing no fewer than 23 individual planning permissions for Viridor Laing and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority for Europe’s largest ever waste PFI project. Once completed, the new waste management facilities will process Manchester’s waste for the next 25 years. Join discussion...

Projects and commercial partners, Tiffany Cloynes and Vincent King from law firm Cobbetts LLP look at the prospects for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the current economic climate. There has been some debate as to the impact of the current economic climate for PFI transactions. The contractual terms for projects which have already been signed should be robust enough to ensure that the new facilities and services are delivered as specified. Join discussion...

AN anti-incinerator campaigner has written to Notts County Council to say he feels "disturbed" by the public being blocked from seeing more details of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract. Veolia Environmental Services Nottinghamshire Ltd sought a High Court injunction which stopped the public being able to visit County Hall to gain more details about its 26-year deal with the council. Join discussion...

Suffolk County Council has narrowed the shortlist down to two for the £612m waste project. SITA UK and Veolia ES are the two remaining bidder fighting it out for the PFI residual waste treatment contract. The council announced last week that they had ruled out the other two remaining bidders a Shanks/Wheelabrator Consortium and Waste Recycling Group to develop a 250,000 tonne-a-year capacity near Ipswich. Join discussion...

Winnipeg city council is poised to make a fundamental change in the way the city's water and waste system is operated. The proposed municipal corporate utility will reduce city council's role in running our city's water and sewer system while expanding the role private companies will have in managing these important public assets. City officials argue that the new utility will be 10 per cent city owned, yet some $600 million in upgrades to the city's waste water treatment plants could be 49 per cent owned by "private sector partners." The utility will also depend on "strategic partnerships" with huge companies to deliver services through lease commitments over 20 or 30 years. Join discussion...