The Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham Joint Waste Board met on Tuesday 7 October 2025, and agreed to maintain the 2025-2026 budget in line with previous years. The board also received updates on the BDR Manager's report, the Renewi/Biffa sale, and the risk register.

BDR Manager's Report

The board received the BDR Manager's Report, which provided an overview of the Joint Waste Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Paul Hutchinson, BDR Manager, explained that the PFI Waste Treatment Facility at Manvers had been running since 2015, serving all three local authorities for processing residential waste. The BDR Board has overseen the project since its tendering, and with fifteen years remaining on the contract, there's a potential five-year extension.

The report highlighted several key areas:

• Governance: The BDR team, consisting of Paul Hutchinson (BDR Manager), Carl Hewlett (Senior Contract Officer), and Rhonda Fletcher (Technical Officer/Admin), operates flexibly across council offices and the PFI Waste Treatment facility at Bolton Road. External support is provided by legal, financial, and technical specialists.
• Financial: The board agreed to maintain the 2025-2026 budget in line with previous years. The PFI Unitary charge had an annual indexation mechanism that was set by the January RPIX[^1] figure, which was 3.2%. [^1]: RPIX is the Retail Price Index excluding mortgage interest payments. It is an inflation measure.
• Contract Delivery: Performance reports are produced monthly by the contractor. The BDR team monitors the contract through site inspections and report scrutiny.
• Complaints: There had been a reduction in complaints compared to previous years. The main issues were noise, odour and flies.
• Environmental Report: There had been one environmental incident in 2025/26, and four Schedule 5s[^2] submitted. [^2]: Schedule 5 is a notification to the Environment Agency of a change to operations that could affect permit compliance.
• Other Updates/Issues: The report included updates on the sale of Renewi to Biffa, insurance, AD Pasteurisation Tunnel & Acid Scrubber, and permit emission amendments.
• Ferrybridge: There will be no Energy Gainshare Payment in 2025/26.
• Barnsley Transfer Station - Grange Lane: All dilapidation works have now been completed.
• Health and Safety: Close calls are actively sought to be raised.
• Community Education Liaison Officer (CELO): The CELO has been coordinating press releases and social media posts, and working on the Food Waste Reduction Campaign.
• Joint Working and BDR Support 2025-2026: The BDR team has been assisting Barnsley, Doncaster, and Rotherham councils with joint and individual projects.

Renewi/Biffa Sale

The board received a verbal update on the sale of Renewi to Biffa. Renewi, a European waste company, sold the contract to Biffa, a UK waste company, as Renewi wanted to leave the UK market due to facing losses.

Since the sale, Biffa had not made any significant changes and all employees on site had been retained. Biffa had taken over the contract to expand their expertise and knowledge in this area. The board was informed that a request to change the Parent Company Guarantee from Renewi to Biffa had been rejected by the local authority.

Risk Register

The board considered the Risk Register Report, which had been presented to the BDR Steering Committee and followed the relevant RMBC Governance processes.

It was confirmed that no new risks had been added to the register since the last meeting. There had been seven risks reduced on the register, mainly due to continued understanding of correct risk profiling by the BDR PFI Manager after undergoing refresher training supplied by RMBC. One risk had increased but still remained low, this was the insurance cost recharge to the council.

Any Other Business

The Chair thanked the outgoing Chair of the Board, Councillor Mark Houlbrook, and requested that the board write a letter of thanks to the former Chair.

Members of the board were advised that the minutes of the Community Liaison Group Meeting were attached for information only. The chair extended an invitation to new members of the board, to visit the site in Mavers.