By Deanne Jeffers
THE decision to award a 7.5-year contract for resource recovery efforts has resulted in another split vote amongst councillors at an additional council meeting on Tuesday.
The Resource Recovery Collection Hume Tender was put to a vote at the March council meeting, with the motion then lost and foreshadowed by Cr Anthony Brophy determining that an additional meeting was to be deferred until on or before 17 April, 2023.
Meeting again on Tuesday, the recommendation was that Greater Shepparton City Council award Contract Number 2312 to Cleanaway for an initial period of 7.5 years with an option to extend for a further 7.5 years; to award Contract Number 2313 to Western Composting for an initial period of 7.5 with an option to extend; and to authorise the CEO to enter negotiations and execute the contract documents as required.
The motion was lost again, with councillors Sam Spinks, Geoff Dobson, Seema Abdullah and Dinny Adem voting for, and against by councillors mayor Shane Sali, Ben Ladson, Greg James and Anthony Brophy. Cr Fern Summer was not in attendance to participate in the vote.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, mayor Sali said, “A motion was put forward to councillors, which was defeated, and a foreshadowed motion was put forward by deputy mayor Anthony Bropy, which outlined two different options moving forward.
“One was to abandon the current tender process that we were undertaking, and to instruct the CEO to come back to us with some steps forward now on what things look like from a waste and recycling service provider for Greater Shepparton.
“With the information that I had, and with what Cr Brophy spoke about, I felt it was something I was willing to support,” he said.
“This is an important decision. It’s a long-term decision as well, so I need to be personally sure that the information I’ve got in front of me that I’m comfortable either supporting or not supporting it because it’s effectively a 15-year decision for our community.”
The recommendation now it to abandon the tender process relevant to the Resource Recovery Collective Hume tender and to instruct the CEO to provide councillors with a report to the steps forward for waste and recycling services in Greater Shepparton.
The CEO will now work with Council’s waste management team and make recommendations to councillors.
“I presume, once we got through the next steps and understand what that means that there’ll be a tender process that will be undertaken again and all suitable companies that wat to apply for this tender can,” said mayor Sali.
Veolia holds the current kerbside waste contracts while Western Composting holds the Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) contract. Both are due to expire in October.
“Ideally you want to have it resolved before then. If not, then an extension of contract will no doubt need to be entered into but that’s for the CEO and the operations team to work through,” mayor Sali said.
