Derby councils are moving ahead with plans to fix the Sinfin Waste Plant, inviting bids for its operation and management.
Derby: So, the Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council are finally making some progress on the Sinfin Waste Plant. They announced that they’re inviting bids from the waste industry to get the plant up and running again. It’s been a long road, but they’re calling this a “major step forward.”
The whole situation got pretty messy back in June when the county council sent a hefty invoice to the city council, which led to some serious drama. The city council’s leader even got voted out because of it! They were arguing over a £93.9 million bill, which definitely raised some eyebrows.
Now, it seems like they’ve worked things out. They’ve reached an agreement on a new Inter-Authority Agreement, and the county council has pulled that big invoice. However, they’re keeping the details of this agreement under wraps for now.
Both councils are now committed to a multi-million-pound plan to get the plant operational. They initially thought it would cost around £70 million, but it looks like they’re ready to push forward anyway.
On January 6, they confirmed they’re looking for bids to fix and operate the facility. They believe this is the best way to manage household waste for both Derby and Derbyshire. They’re also keen on encouraging residents to recycle more.
They’ve done some market testing and found that there’s interest from companies to take on this project. They plan to shortlist bidders by February 2025, award a contract by December 2025, and hopefully have the facility up and running by June 2028.
Once everything’s in place, the waste treatment center should start accepting waste from across the area by November 2028. Cllr Ndukwe Onuoha mentioned that they still need a solid long-term solution for managing waste that people can’t or won’t recycle.
Both councils are optimistic about finding the right operators for this project. They’ve set up a procurement process that they believe will attract experienced companies to help get this sorted.
Cllr Simon Spencer added that processing waste locally is way better than shipping it all over the country. It’ll save money and help avoid unpredictable market prices in the future.
This whole saga started back in 2009 when a company was hired to manage the waste and build the facility. But things went south when the plant failed its tests, leading to a contract termination in 2019.
After that, there was a lot of back and forth about compensation, with the councils disputing a £187 million claim. They eventually settled for £93.5 million, which was a relief for everyone involved.
Since then, both councils have been pretty tight-lipped about the future of the plant. But last August, they confirmed that plans were back on track after all the drama.
It’s been a costly journey, with estimates suggesting the project has already cost over £150 million. And it might end up being even more expensive. The original idea was to handle a massive amount of waste and recycle as much as possible, but that didn’t pan out.
Now, they’re just trying to get things back on track and make sure the plant can actually do what it was meant to do. Fingers crossed they can finally get it sorted!
