Member Article

Liverpool Mayor slams £1bn contract loss to Teesside

The Mayor of Liverpool has criticised a decision to award a £1bn contract to a North East company, offered up by Merseyside Recycling and Waste.

Joe Anderson attacked the decision that will see the ‘Energy from Waste’ contract for the disposal of Merseyside waste go to SITA UK Ltd; a firm based in Teesside.

The deal will last 30 years and is expected to create hundreds of jobs through the construction of a new facility at the Wilton International site in Teesside, while 50 permanent jobs will be created when the plant is operational.

Although this is good news for the North East, Mr Anderson slammed the decision, which he said will take a major opportunity away from Merseyside.

He said: “I feel the city and the wider City Region has had a massive opportunity for major infrastructure investment snatched from its grasp and hundreds of potential jobs which we desperately need have gone to the North East.

“I want to understand why the City Region leaders have not been involved in such a huge decision and why I, as the Mayor of Liverpool, with Liverpool contributing more to the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority than any other authority, had to read about the decision in a press release after the decision was made.

“I also want to understand how it can be more environmentally friendly and more cost effective to ship the waste of Merseyside all the way to Teesside some 150 miles away rather than dispose of our own waste locally.

“Although local authorities on Merseyside didn’t want the facility on their patch a bid was put in to have it in Ellesmere Port, which would have allowed people living in the City Region to apply for the jobs created.”

The contract will see SITA UK work in partnership with energy and utilities firm Sembcorp UK and investment firm I-Environment, which is part of a Japanese corporation.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .