Waste firm says council seeking to 'remonopolise' service

THE PANDA waste collection company has claimed before the High Court that Dublin City Council is seeking to "remonopolise" the household collection service in the capital.

The claim was made yesterday by counsel for Nurendale Ltd, trading as Panda Waste Services, Rathdrinagh, Beauparc Business Park, Navan, Co Meath.

Panda is seeking a court order to overturn the council's decision altering the existing waste permit regime, under which some private collectors operate in the market, to one where collection is carried out by the local authority or a collector appointed by the council.

Panda claims moves to alter the current regime is an abuse of the Dublin local councils' dominant market position. The company is also seeking damages.

Opening the case yesterday, Martin Hayden SC, for the company, said there was a deliberate decision by the council to "remonopolise" the waste collection market. Up to 1996, all household waste in Dublin was collected by directly employed local authority workers. After 1996, a licensing system was introduced allowing private firms. A number of such operators, including Panda, got involved.

Mr Hayden said the main reason the council wanted to remonopolise the collection system was because it had entered into a contract to provide 320,000 tonnes of rubbish a year for the planned municipal waste incinerator at Poolbeg.

The company is asking the court to review a decision by the council, on behalf of the city's four local authorities, to vary the Dublin waste management plan.

Panda claims the decision is an attempt to prohibit the collection of waste by the private sector.

Mr Hayden said comments made in correspondence by assistant city council manager Matt Twomey showed that it was intended there would be no private operators in the market.

The council says it is its intention that collection of household waste will be by a single operator, either the local authority or as a result of a tendering process.

Panda Waste was set up in 1990 and employs 250 people. It has an annual turnover of about €50 million and some 28,000 domestic customers in Dublin.

In 2005, the company implemented a business plan in which it focused on the domestic waste collection market, particularly in Dublin. It competed in Dún Laoghaire, Fingal and South Dublin County Council areas and bought the Smurfit recycling plant in Ballymount.

The case before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie continues.