A FINAL preferred bidder for a controversial incinerator which will burn household waste from across the North East should be identified by the start of July.

The £300m project continues to move forward apace with land at the Teesworks industrial site, near Redcar, which has been identified for the Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility, now having been fully remediated for the planned development.

The award of a contract to run the facility – which is due to become operational from April 2026 – is expected in early November.

Seven councils are involved in the project and as a result a so-called Local Authority Special Purpose Vehicle (LASPV) is being set up – essentially a limited company which will be the contracting entity on the local authorities’ behalf and enter into an agreement with the successful bidder.

Redcar and Cleveland Council’s cabinet agreed in March to enter into the LASPV and other councils are thought to have followed suit.

There will also be a 50-year lease agreed with the South Tees Development Corporation, which has responsibility for Teesworks.

While cabinet members have been regularly updated on the project, discussions and decision making have largely been behind closed doors due to meeting items being declared confidential, therefore at this stage little is known about the specific costs and liabilities that will be shared between the partner local councils.

Redcar and Cleveland Council has teamed up with the four other councils in the Tees Valley – Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Stockton – and been joined by Durham County Council and Newcastle City Council to commission the design, build, financing and eventual operation of the incinerator, which is predicted to prompt economy of scale savings for the local authorities.

Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Stockton councils currently have a contract with Suez Recycling – formerly SITA – at Haverton Hill to treat household waste that cannot be recycled, but this is due to end in 2025.

Three companies – Viridor Waste Management Ltd, Suez Recycling and Recovery Ltd and Green Recovery Projects Ltd – were in the running for the contract, which could eventually be worth more than £2bn.

The operator chosen will be given a minimum 29 year contract to build and operate the plant with the potential of an 11 year extension.

When the contract expires it will revert to being jointly owned by the seven councils in the partnership.

A £5m loan is being provided by the Tees Valley Combined Authority for the procurement and related costs, which will be paid back over the operational period of the new facility.

The development will create 300 jobs during the construction phase and 40 full-time jobs.

In December Redcar and Cleveland leader Mary Lanigan said the project had “gone too far down the line” to be reconsidered after she was pressed by former Green Party general election candidate Rowan Mclaughlin over the environmental impact.

Ms Mclaughlin is chair of the group Stop Incineration North East (SINE), which previously labelled the energy recovery facility as a “monster incinerator” and has called on council leaders to cancel the planned build.

A spokesman for the project previously described the facility as a “safe, efficient and sustainable” solution to an increase in household waste.

It will burn up to 450,000 tonnes a year of domestic solid waste that can’t be recycled from one and-a-half million households across the North-East, creating electricity for the National Grid.

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