Wheelie bin tender dumped

Southland’s recycling could end up in landfills after a controversial tender process was declared dead in the water yesterday.

The WasteNet Advisory Group, a joint committee between the Invercargill City Council (ICC) and the Gore District and Southland District councils, met yesterday and closed the tender process for contract 850.

For the past eight years Southern disAbility Enterprises (SDE) has held the contract with WasteNet to sort the region’s wheelie-bin collections.

In May, SDE went public with the news that it had been told another company was the preferred tenderer.

From there, contract 850 become a political football and a contentious subject for the three councils, especially after the ICC stood against the others by voting not to go with the preferred tenderer, Smart Environmental Ltd.

After yesterday’s meeting, the advisory group’s newly appointed chairwoman, Invercargill City councillor Alex Crackett, said it would be a worst-case scenario if recyclables ended up in landfill.

The community worked hard to recycle and it would be a devastating blow, she said.

If a new recycling contract was not developed it could be up to the individual councils to figure out how they would deal with their recyclables, ‘‘which will likely result in a significant cost increase to Invercargill City as we could be taking it on our own,’’ Crackett said.

Smart Environmental had previously put the ICC on notice, saying that in the event the tender is closed and no contract is awarded, the business would consider legal options to recover its costs.

The letter, tabled to the Invercargill City Council, said: ‘‘Smart will consider every possible avenue to recover its costs and losses associated with the [tender] from the council.’’

At the advisory group meeting yesterday, members were told that the Gore District and Southland District councils also reserved their rights to pursue cost recovery against the ICC.

ICC chief executive Clare Hadley was understood to be out of the office yesterday afternoon and unable to answer questions.

Invercargill mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt could not be contacted; his deputy mayor, Toni Biddle, was unaware of the decision and was not prepared to comment.

SDE chairman Stephen O’Connor was circumspect when told the tender process had closed without a contract being signed.

While he was ‘‘very pleased’’ to hear that the tender process had closed, he said SDE looked forward to assisting WasteNet with any of the region’s future recycling needs.

He declined to comment on the tender process as a whole.

In June this year, Shadbolt effectively sided with SDE at a dramatic and elongated council meeting. The ICC was split six in favour, six against, and he laid the deciding vote against WasteNet’s recommendation to go with another tenderer.

The divide became a key issue during the campaign leading up the October local body elections.

Leaving individual councils to deal with their own recyclables would ‘‘likely result in a significant cost increase to Invercargill City’’.

City councillor Alex Crackett, right

WasteNet Advisory Group chairwoman