WLWA announces procurement timetable

"The West London Waste Authority (WLWA) has short-listed two bidders for the long-term West London Residual Waste Services contract covering the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, and Richmond upon Thames.

"Two bidders:

• a consortium of E.ON Energy from Waste AG with Tata Chemicals Europe Limited, and 
• SITA UK Limited

are in the final stage of the competitive dialogue process.

"Final tenders are to be submitted by 28 February 2013. WLWA expects to be in a position to select its preferred bidder in April 2013 to enable the new services to start in April 2015, but WLWA is exploring with bidders the opportunity for an earlier start to begin diversion from landfill as soon as possible.

"The contract involves handling 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 energy, refuse-derived fuel, and recyclates.

"Bids were invited from 'single entity' companies, consortia, or joint ventures and WLWA offered its three waste transfer stations at Brentford, South Ruislip and Park Royal as part of the procurement but also welcomed proposals involving sites within bidders’ control or which they intend to acquire.

"West London already recycles or composts almost 40% of its household waste, more than any other sub region of London. The new contract will allow continued flexibility to increase recycling up to at least 50% by 2020 and WLWA will focus even more on waste minimisation schemes in the future."

28 February 
Final Tenders Submitted

28 February to 5 April 
Evaluation of Final Tenders

12 April 
Project Board Meeting

26 April 
Authority Meeting

29 April 2013 
Announcement of Preferred Bidder

"So far as the Authority’s Residual Waste Procurement is concerned, we are fortunate in that we have come to the market somewhat later than many other authorities. As a consequence we have been able to review similar previous procurements. This has permitted us to adopt the best practice principles that the more successful of these other procurements have identified.

"In addition, the Authority is utilising the WIDP-developed contractual documentation as the basis of the procurement. WIDP is by the Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programmes, which is a specialist department within DEFRA.

"This documentation has been developed from the experience gained on a number of large waste procurements. Additionally, the documentation has benefited from the input of HM Treasury on financial issues. This documentation is seen as a benchmark for well-managed procurements.

"Finally, the procurement process has also benefited from the experience of a WIDP transactor (a professional with experience upon a number of previous similar procurements) advising us. And of course, we also have a number of specialist consultants advising on legal, financial and technical issues.

"... The WLWA can confirm that the Authority has modelled various waste growth/reduction scenarios. These provided the basis upon which the waste arisings contained within the bidding process were calculated. All scenarios were based upon recycling achieving a level of 50% across the Authority area."