Redcar and Cleveland Council sends recycling 300 miles

Ward Recycling Ltd recorded a pre-tax loss of more than £1m

A council is sending household recycling more than 300 miles to be processed after previously declaring a climate change "emergency".

Redcar and Cleveland Council has signed a 12-month contract with the Re-Gen waste management group in Newry, Northern Ireland.

It had to find a replacement after its current operator, Ward Recycling Limited, went into liquidation.

The authority said the decision was made under "urgency provisions".

Growth, enterprise and environment scrutiny committee vice chairman Cliff Foggo said the new contract was a "bit more expensive" but there had already been a reduction in items being rejected due to contamination.

There was only a limited number of firms available to take on recycling contracts and the council had to find a contractor "in a very short period of time", he said.

A report to the authority said, due to the "urgent need to secure service delivery, the usual forward plan notice requirements could not be met and the decision was made in accordance with special urgency provisions".

'Zero carbon borough'

Ward Recycling Ltd was registered in Northallerton and has a materials recycling facility in Middlesbrough and a fibre-sorting plant in Hartlepool creating recycled paper.

It recorded a pre-tax loss of more than £1m in its last published accounts in April last year and had warned of difficult trading conditions, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council, which is due to put out a longer contract to tender later this year, declared a climate emergency in March 2019.

Its recent corporate plan includes measures aimed at creating a zero carbon borough.