Veolia 2003 PFI Contract
Following a four year procurement process, in April 2003 a 25-year Integrated Waste Management Services Contract worth £962m was awarded to Onyx South Downs Ltd – now known as Veolia South Downs Ltd – by East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC).
Note that this contract was extended by 5 years in 2007. It was not then put out to tender, so this drew criticism that it had fallen foul of European Commission rules on fair competition.
Letter to The Argus [April 2005]
During the consultation period on the Waste Local Plan - First Deposit (November 1 - December 12, 2000), we considered nine possible locations for waste facilities.
Locally, Hangleton Bottom, Hove, was identified as a likely materials recovery facility and waste transfer station and the coal-yard adjacent to Sackville Trading Estate, Hove, was listed as having potential for road-to-rail transfer of waste.
Later, in April 2003, Brighton and Hove City and East Sussex County Councils signed a private finance initiative contract with Onyx.
It has subsequently homed in on a small number of sites. Residents in Hollingdean, Round Hill and St Peter's are now faced with the prospect of dreadful noise and pollution levels arising from Onyx's commercial preference to deal with the whole of Brighton and Hove's waste at the Hollingdean Depot.
Before winning the contract, Onyx declared its intention to build an anaerobic digestion plant at Pebsham, Bexhill.
After the contract was awarded, the anaerobic digestion plant was conveniently forgotten.
In drawing up waste plans, the councils failed to investigate alternatives to mass burning of rubbish and although they made three visits to incinerators, at no time did either council visit an anaerobic digester.
It is worth noting 90 per cent of the people who commented on the first public consultation opposed incineration. By the time of the public inquiry, feelings were just as strong.
Moreover, the basis for consultation shifted again as it became clear Onyx Aurora - with the contract secured - wanted a sole incinerator (proposed for Newhaven) to bear the brunt of local waste management.
Of course, planning options evolve as safety and cost considerations narrow them down but this is why parents with children at the Downs schools and other residents living in the vicinity of the Hollingdean Depot demand a rethink.
Our health, safety and satisfaction with our neighbourhood are at risk of being seriously undermined.
If planning is necessarily a process where goalposts are moved, let us not bury public money in a waste plan which is both damaging to our community and environmentally unsustainable.
It is time to move the goalposts in another direction.
We need much more stringent measures to limit the quantity of waste, higher targets for recycling and smaller sites not quite so close to densely-populated residential areas.
I urge the councils to change direction now, to avoid serious embarrassment later on.
Related items
The Inspector to public inquiry on objections to BHCC's / ESCC's Waste Local Plan First Deposit (November 1 - December 12, 2000) recommended that Hangleton Bottom as well as Hollingdean Depot should be retained for Materials Recovery and Waste Management Facilities October 2003.
Separate food waste collections - residents' concerns.
What happened to the anaerobic digestion plant which Onyx South Down Ltd declared it intended to build at Pebsham, Bexhill before winning the 25-year integrated waste management services contract with East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council?
Onyx South Downs Ltd (later known as Onyx Aurora) initially proposed constructing an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Pebsham, Bexhill, as part of its bid for the 25-year Integrated Waste Management Services Contract with East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council. The plan aimed to develop a facility that would process waste through anaerobic digestion to generate energy.
However, the proposed AD plant at Pebsham was never realized. Instead, the waste management strategy evolved over time. The Pebsham landfill site ceased operations in November 2013, marking the end of landfill use at that location. Subsequently, the site was repurposed to serve as a waste transfer station, facilitating the efficient bulking and haulage of waste to treatment facilities.
The broader waste management infrastructure under the contract, now managed by Veolia, includes:
- An energy recovery facility in Newhaven that generates electricity from waste.
- A composting facility in Whitesmith for garden and food waste.
- A materials recovery facility in Hollingdean for sorting recyclables.
- Transfer stations in Hollingdean, Maresfield, and Pebsham.
- New household waste recycling sites in Crowborough, Hastings, and Maresfield.
While the initial proposal included an AD plant at Pebsham, the final implementation focused on other waste treatment and recycling facilities across East Sussex and Brighton & Hove.
This page was last updated by Ted on 27-May-2025