Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council have reaffirmed their ambitions of bringing the Sinfin Waste Plant into operation, saying the project has taken a “major step forward”. In an update issued on Monday (January 6), the two councils said that bids from the waste industry were being invited for a contract to fix and operate the facility.
The much-anticipated dispute between the authorities entered the public domain in early June and resulted in the then-leader of Derby City Council being voted out of office. The conflict arose when the county council issued the city council with an invoice for £93.9 million plus VAT in January this year.
Details of how the two councils had addressed the key issues of the dispute have not been fully revealed. But it is understood that both parties have now reached an agreement on the terms of a new Inter-Authority Agreement about the waste plant, resulting in the invoice being withdrawn by the county council. The city council has said the details of the agreement will not be made public.
The two authorities now say they are committed to a multi-million-pound plan to get the plant operational – despite it being said previously that it would cost in the region of at least £70 million and might not be possible.
On January 6, a spokesperson for the two councils said that bids from the waste industry were being invited for a contract to fix and operate the facility. A statement from Derby City Council said: “Both councils have reaffirmed their commitment to the original decision, made in February 2023, to work in partnership to get the waste treatment centre at Sinfin operational.
“Fixing and operating the facility was found to be the most viable and cost-effective, long-term solution to manage household waste from both the city and county, taking into account the councils’ ongoing commitment to encourage residents to reduce, reuse and recycle more of their waste.
“Soft market testing undertaken throughout 2023 confirmed there was capability, capacity and appetite in the market to deliver the project.” An exercise to shortlist bidders is expected to take place in February 2025, leading to the award of a contract in December 2025 and commissioning of the facility in June 2028.
It is anticipated the waste treatment centre will start to accept waste from across the city and county in November 2028. Cllr Ndukwe Onuoha, Derby City Council’s cabinet member for streetpride, public safety and leisure, said: “We still need a long-term, more sustainable solution to manage household waste which residents in Derby and Derbyshire either cannot or choose not to recycle.
“The councils are confident there is a competitive market for this project and the operators with the skills and experience to successfully deliver the project and its expected benefits. The councils have developed a procurement process and commercial proposition that we are confident will be attractive to suitably qualified and experienced companies and lead to a successful contract award.”
Cllr Simon Spencer, Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet member for corporate services and budget, said: “Having the waste treatment centre process non-recyclable household waste is more sustainable than transporting material around the country and reduces the risk of the councils being exposed to uncontrollable market prices in the future.
“We look forward with confidence to progressing the project to provide both councils with the most viable and cost-effective, long-term solution for the management of household waste, to benefit residents in both the city and county.”
The long-running saga of the waste plant began in 2009, when Resource Recovery Solutions (Derbyshire) Ltd (RRS) – a partnership between infrastructure firm Interserve and waste management company Renewi – was awarded a contract by Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council to manage the councils’ residual waste and design, build, commission and operate a waste treatment facility in Sinfin.
RRS paid for the facility – which under the councils’ contract with RRS was planned to be completed in 2017 – to be designed and built, in order to divert 190,000 tonnes of waste per year away from landfill. But it failed its commissioning tests and the contract was terminated in 2019.
This led the councils and RRS to begin a process to determine the “adjusted estimated fair value” of the contract. The value was the sum due as compensation (to either RRS or the councils) following the termination of the contract and was designed to reflect the future value of the long-term waste management contract.
This led the administrators of RRS to seek compensation of £187 million for the project’s cancellation, which the councils disputed and thought should be nearer £9 million, and a date was booked in the High Court for this year. It was later cancelled after the councils and RRS agreed to settle for a payment of £93.5 million – £56.93 million to be paid by the county and £36.57 million by the city.
The two councils settled out of court. But since then both authorities refused to answer questions regarding the future of the project and the waste plant. In August last year, the two authorities confirmed that plans were back on track after the much-publicised dispute between the council.
Derbyshire Live’s agenda editor, Zena Hawley, said the project had cost Derby and Derbyshire councils more than £150 million – and says there is a likelihood that it is going to cost “even more millions of pounds”. In an opinion piece back in June, she said: “The bill is actually probably much higher because the drive to get a waste plant up and running began back in 2008/09, amid much opposition from local residents in Sinfin.
“The idea was that the waste plant would handle 190,000 tonnes of waste from across Derbyshire as part of a waste contract with RRS (Resource Recovery Solutions Derbyshire Ltd). The plan was to extract metals and hard plastics for recycling from incoming waste, dry a percentage of the waste and finally create refuse derived fuel which is then burnt, or gasified, to produce steam to generate electricity for sale.
“But it failed its commissioning tests and the councils pulled the plug on the project. Throughout the commissioning process, areas around it were blighted by flies and odours.” As well as the out-of-court settlement, the two councils have been “maintaining” the plant since the contract was ended – believed to be to the tune of millions a year.