Indaver Ireland will bid to build incinerator in Belfast

WASTE MANAGEMENT group Indaver Ireland is planning to lodge a bid to build a 400,000 tonne incinerator for the greater Belfast area under a public-private partnership (PPP) being planned by the British government.

Indaver Ireland’s offshoot in Britain has formed a joint venture with John Laing, a UK-based infrastructure group that specialises in PPPs, to bid for the project.

If successful, the pair will be required to raise finance of £200 million for the project.

“We are going to bid to build the municipal incinerator in Belfast,” Indaver Ireland managing director John Ahern told The Irish Times. “We’ve hired our advisers and we’re ready to go.”

The contract will comprise Belfast city and 11 neighbouring council areas.

The plant will also include two mechanical and biological treatment facilities. It is expected to handle waste from the local authorities and the private sector.

It is understood a number of potential sites have been identified by the British government.

The Indaver-led consortium has appointed a team of advisers for the projects, including accountants Grant Thornton, law firm Walker Morris and the Northern Ireland-based civil engineering group McAdam.

The tender is expected to be issued by the British government in August. This would be the first incinerator to be built in the North, and is certain to face significant local opposition on health and environmental grounds.

Indaver Ireland is a subsidiary of the Belgium-based company of the same name which has waste-management operations across Europe. Indaver entered the Irish market in 1998, but only moved into the UK about 18 months ago. Its entry was led by the Dublin-based business, which manages the British offshoot.

“We have about 40 people working in the UK now, which isn’t bad,” Mr Ahern said. “We have a turnover of £3 million there and we operate two hazardous waste incinerators on behalf of a big pharmaceutical company.”

Indaver is currently planning to build incinerators in Meath and Cork at a combined cost of €280 million.

This week the company said construction on the Meath plant would begin in August, and it would open in January 2011.

This will be Ireland’s first incinerator and will handle 200,000 tonnes of municipal waste. The company is working through a shortlist of six Irish construction firms to build the plant.

“The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since we announced we were starting to build,” Mr Ahern said. “We’ve been flooded with requests to sell us services.”

Indaver reaches end of long legal road as incinerator gets green light: page 4