Peterborough City Council has announced Viridor as the recommended preferred bidder to build and operate an energy from waste plant in the city.
The new facility will reduce the amount of Peterborough’s waste sent to landfill by 93 per cent and will generate around 53,000MWh of electricity.
Peterborough currently produces 90,000 tonnes of waste per year, which is set to increase to 140,000 tonnes by 2040. Of this, 43 per cent is currently recycled with the remaining 50,000 tonnes of residual waste sent to landfill.
The council intends to invest around £76 million transforming its waste services including the energy from waste facility.
Viridor beat Kier in the final shortlist to be announced preferred bidder and will need to build the facility by 2015. It will then operate it for 30 years.
The deputy leader of Peterborough City Council Matthew Lee will now consider the proposal before announcing his decision to proceed or not with Viridor as preferred bidder after it was recommended by the council’s Waste 2020 Project Board. He will announce his decision on 10 August before a three-day calling in period begins for the decision to be challenged. It will then be implemented on 15 August.
Councillor Lee said: “This contract heralds a whole new, and very exciting, approach to the way in which we manage our waste.
“We have been very fortunate to have two excellent proposals from the two final bidders.
“I will now consider the recommendations carefully before making my decision.”
