Bedford Borough Council awards waste contract to company planning to use controversial site Rookery South incinerator

Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council have award a new contract for residents’ black bin disposal to Veolia - which will treat waste at the Energy Recovery Facility at Rookery South.

Only two bids were received which both included the waste being treated at the Rookery South incinerator at Stewartby.

In a statement, Bedford Borough Council said Veolia represented the best option in terms of quality and price, saving both councils more than £1,000,000 per year.

Cllr Charles Royden, portfolio holder for environment at Bedford Borough Council, said: “As a council we were strongly against this facility being built at Rookery South, which was approved by national government in the face of strong opposition from both local people and the two local councils. Indeed Bedford Borough Council provided financial support to try and stop the facility being built.

“Veolia was the company selected under the strict government procurement regulations because they offered best value. The council has no alternative since we need to have in place a way of disposing of our waste from over 75,000 households and businesses across the borough.

“This is for black bag waste and will not compromise the council’s efforts in increasing recycling going into the future. We carry out a fortnightly recycling collection and we would always encourage residents to reduce the waste they create, reuse what they can, and recycle as much as possible.”

Cllr Ian Dalgarno, Central Bedfordshire’s executive member for community services, said: “The facility at Rookery South was approved by national government in the face of strong opposition from both local people and both councils.

“But in awarding the contract we were also aware that Rookery South’s operator has started to allocate the waste disposal capacity to various waste producers, such as local authorities, and waste could be brought into Bedfordshire from further away.

“Using a local facility means that waste that we collect uses this capacity rather than sending it to facilities further away. Its location in Bedfordshire means we can directly deliver our waste to the plant, lowering emissions from transporting the waste when it becomes operational in 2021.”