No tender on ‘win-win’ deal

Helen Goltz

Despite protests from members of the public at last week’s Shellharbour City Council meeting, the council has entered into an agreement with Huntley Heritage without going to tender, to transfer construction and demolition (C&D) waste from the Dunmore Recycling and Waste Disposal Depot to Huntley’s West Dapto Waste Management Facility.

According to the council’s business papers, the transfer of inert waste from Dunmore is expected to free up fill space and extend the life of the landfill at Dunmore for up to six months at a cost “likely to exceed $150,000”.

Graham Standen, Shellharbour City Council’s group manager customer and environmental services said under normal circumstances a threshold of $150,000 would trigger the need to undertake a formal tender process.

However, the council concluded that due to the absence of another builder’s tip in the area with the capacity to handle the quantity of waste to be transported from Dunmore, it was unlikely that a competitive or reliable tenderer would be received.

Clause 55 of the Local Government Act 1993 allowed the council to enter into a contract without undertaking a formal tender process.

Warilla resident, Sue Fleet, who addressed the council at the pubic forum session prior to the decision being voted on, said she was concerned about the possible links between Huntley management and labor councillors.

“I found it alarming that Shellharbour City Council would consider entering into a contract with Huntley Heritage, given the recent negative press implying links between developers and councillors in Wollongong,” she said.

“I thought that the council would be wary of granting contracts without first putting them out to tender, in the interest of transparency. Apparently not.”

Warilla resident Peter Moran, who also attended the public forum said the council had not been transparent with the costing and Huntley needed the waste more than the people of Shellharbour needed to get rid of it.

“They have a big hole to fill before they can build their golf course and they should be paying for the fill, not the other way around,” he said.

“Huntley has been prosecuted twice for illegally accepting material. We need to be careful with whom we enter into contracts with.”

Mr Moran said he was very disappointed that the council accepted this proposal without full knowledge of the cost behind it.

“The business papers said ‘in excess of $150,000’,” Mr Moran said. “Is this $500,000 or a million dollars? The council were quite specific about the amount of waste, so why not give us a total costing?”

Responding on behalf of the council, Mr Standen said the amount paid in gate fees (on a per tonne basis) to Huntley would depend on the amount of waste transferred from Dunmore to Huntley.

“The tip fees received by the council, as the C&D waste enters Dunmore Waste and Recycling Depot, will cover all expenses including administration, handling, transportation and the gate fee at Huntley tip,” Mr Standen said.

Huntley Heritage director Robert Renshall said the arrangement was a very good deal.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Mr Renshall said. “The council has to save their waste space and we have to cover compaction costs. Shellharbour tip has a limited life and we don’t have a long life either.

“Because we are not in the business of being a tip – we’re doing an environmental rehabilitation of a coal mine – we can give the council a much lower commercial rate for taking inert waste.

“To say we should be paying the council for their waste is a comment of absolute stupidity,” he said.

Mr Renshall said the arrangement would not proceed until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviewed the agreement and gave it the go ahead to start.