Following an announcement in August, that the Recycling and Waste Management PFI Contract between the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) and Viridor Laing, would end on 29 September 2017, it has been confirmed that this is the case and the contract has been terminated.
In a short statement, GMWDA said: “The Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) can confirm that following our media brief on the 24thAugust in relation to the Recycling and Waste Management PFI Contract, negotiations and legal paperwork have now been concluded and as a result the current contract arrangements with Viridor Laing (Greater Manchester) Ltd (VLGM) end on 29th September 2017.
“Ownership of VLGM has now passed to GMWDA and it has been renamed Greater Manchester Combined Waste and Recycling. The details of these arrangements remain the same as per the previous brief”. These can be found on the GMWDA website.
The History
The 25-year PFI contract was signed in April 2009 and was the largest ever combined waste and energy project, but GMWDA announced in May that it was seeking an exit from the PFI because of “financial challenges due to prolonged austerity”.
It said at the time, that whilst a range of efficiency savings options have been explored in partnership with VLGM and their sub-contractor Viridor, what it calls “constraints” within the new EU Procurement Regulations (2014) have meant that the savings identified cannot be taken forward through the existing contractual arrangements, coupled with what it calls some “technical and operational challenges” in the contract.