Recycling contract terminated

Bailey Waste Recycling based in Silverwood Industrial Estate held the recycling contract with the council for the past eight years.

General Manager Shaun Loughlin said the company was disappointed to lose the contract to Re-Gen in Newry, but added his firm were a growing business and would move on.

Mr Loughlin said there had been no redundancies, although a couple of employees have transferred to the Newry firm under TUPE employment law.

Mr Loughlin said: “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a huge blow. We’ll move on.

“We do skip hire, commercial collection and other contracts as well as the recycling. We’ve got our fingers in a lot of pies.

“We’re a growing company and we’ll continue in that trend.”

A spokesperson for Craigavon Council said: “It is current best practice to restrict contracts to a maximum initial period of three years with possible extensions of one year.

“Our existing arrangement had come to an end of this timeframe and Council is required to publicly advertise any tender with a possible contract value over £25,000. The tender was advertised in both regional media and on eSourcing NI.

The spokesperson added: “Council awards tenders on a number of criteria dependent upon the specification. In this particular instance a number of criteria applied including quality and cost. The tender for the mixed dry waste has been awarded to Re-Gen in Newry who are going to pay council for the material as opposed to council, ie ratepayers, having to pay for this service. This will assist in keeping rates at an acceptable level.”

Regarding redundancies the council said: “TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) apply to the tender so Re-Gen have to offer employment accordingly. We understand that in some instances this has been rejected.”