Bin Veolia in Brent campaign steps up

Brent Council is currently going through the procurement process for a huge Public Realm contract up to £16.1m per year (£145m over the 9 year lifetime of the contract).

Public Realm covers:

• Waste collection and recycling services including how recycled material is managed
• street cleansing and litter picking across Brent's highways, parks, open spaces and housing estates managed and/or owned by Brent Housing Partnership (BHP).
• Grounds maintenance across all Brent parks, cemeteries, open spaces and housing estates managed and/or owned by BHP
• Burial services
• Winter services (although this might be procured through the LOHAC contract for highway services)

Elements of this new contract are currently held by the controversial French multi-national company Veolia and they are expected to bid for the new contract which is due to begin in April 2014 (waste collection and street cleaning) and September 2014 (grounds maintenance).

Brent and Harrow PSC wrote to the procurement team at Brent Council asking that Veolia be excluded from bidding for the contract at the initial stage (Pre Qualification Questionnaire PQQ) on the grounds that its activities in the Occupied Territories of Palestine constituted grave misconduct. Detailed evidence and legal argument was given.

Our submission did go before the Panel but they unanimously decided not to exercise their discretion to exclude Veolia ES Ltd from the procurement process. 

We have now asked for details of how and why the Panel reached that decision but meanwhile are stepping up the campaign for the next stage of the process which will go through several rounds over the Spring and Summer. We will be collecting signatures on petitions, lobbying councillors and holding public meetings in order to spread the message throughout Brent that a borough committed to social justice and serving a diverse community should not be spending our public money supporting a company infamous throughout the world for its activities in the Occupied Territories which deprive people of their basic human rights. (See side panel link for details and also follow this LINK to Dump Veolia Information Group)

Veolia result withdrew from the gigantic North London Waste Authority waste contract after an energetic community campaign against it being awarded the contract.

Our petition can be found below. Please run it off and collect signatures in your work places, trade unions, communities and places of worship.