A £58MILLION waste contract has been agreed between Swindon Borough Council and Viridor.

The work is currently carried out by a council-owned company, Public Power Solutions.

But as reported by Letsrecycle.com last week, a new deal has been agreed with Viridor's worth £58,334,400.

Viridor Ltd is a recycling, renewable energy and waste management company based in Somerset, with plants in Avonmouth and Oxfordshire and with Grundon at Colnbrook.

Swindon's waste is dried and converted into "solid recovered fuel" (SRF) for use in industrial processes by Public Power Solutions.

The SRF plant - one of the only of its kind in the country and now powered by an adjacent solar farm - was built with the aid of an £8 million loan from Swindon Council.

The Labour group - which said it  was shocked to learn of the "short-sighted" decision - says the plant is now to be dismantled and in future lorries will pick up the untreated waste and transport it to an “incineration with energy recovery” plant near Bristol.

Labour leader Jim Grant said: "We believe that any financial savings will be minimal, and we are concerned that when the contract comes up for renewal Swindon Council will no longer have the option of taking the operation back in house.

"In outsourcing waste disposal Swindon Council has once again made a very short-sighted decision.

"If any short-term financial benefit is to be expected – which we doubt – we think it should have been outweighed by the environmental impact."

The contract went up for tender in August 2021, with the eight-year contract valued between £45-60million, and was announced behind-closed-doors in December 6, at a cabinet meeting that the public and press were excluded from.

A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said: “We are looking forward to working with Viridor as we continue our drive to secure value for money from our waste disposal operations.

“We are supporting both Viridor and PPS through the contract handover stage so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time. The new contract will have no impact on the collection of residents’ waste and recycling.”

Michael French, Viridor’s Chief Commercial Officer said “Viridor is delighted to have been awarded this contract and we look forward to working with both Swindon Borough Council and Public Power Solutions.

"We have been able to offer a robust and flexible solution for the Council through use of our existing Energy Recovery facilities at Avonmouth and Ardley as well as our Joint Venture facility at Lakeside.

"This contract will contribute to Viridor’s strategy of growing our core areas of our business, including our Energy Recovery and Polymers Reprocessing, while pushing ahead with our plans to be net-zero by 2040.”

Viridor will take over from Friday, April 1.