Partnership of NI councils scrap waste procurement after legal challenge

The Southern Waste Management Partnership (SWaMP2008), one of three sub-regional waste management groups created to manage Northern Ireland’s waste, started the tendering process back in June 2009. 

The purpose of the proposed contract was the provision of waste management services in the region, to reduce the use of landfill for domestic waste and support increased recycling. 

A spokesman for SWaMP2008 said that it had reached its decision “with great regret”. He said the procurement had recently been the subject of a legal challenge, “as a result of circumstances that are outside of the control of SWaMP2008”.

The spokesman added: “As a publicly-funded organisation, SWaMP2008 has reluctantly concluded that its interests, and those of its stakeholders, are not best served by engaging in an expensive, lengthy and ultimately uncertain legal process, and consequently the procurement process is to be terminated.”

The partnership will now look at how to address shorter term waste needs in the region.