Central Bedfordshire Council news and press releases

Veolia awarded new waste contract

Monday, 12 October 2020

With the current contract for collecting black bins coming to an end, we've awarded the new contract to Veolia.

We've awarded the new contact jointly, with Bedford Borough Council.

Veolia represented the best option in terms of quality and price. As part of the contract, Veolia (over time) intends to treat waste at the energy recovery facility at Rookery South.

Councillor Ian Dalgarno, Our 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 both councils can directly deliver our waste to the plant, lowering emissions from transporting the waste when it becomes operational in 2021.

Councillor 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. These are simple steps we can all take to reduce our impact on the planet.