The county council applied for the Judicial Review in partnership with York city council and its actions come after the surprise announcement (see letsrecycle.com story) in February 2013 that Defra had cancelled the proposed allocation of 65 million of funding credits. The Department said that the funding was no longer necessary because there will be enough infrastructure to divert material from landfill without the North Yorkshire project.
Richard Flinton, chief executive, North Yorkshire council said today: We consider that the secretary of state has not made the decision to withdraw our credits in a proper manner and that he has failed to follow Defras own published criteria.
“We also consider him to have failed to take account of the waste management obligations in the Waste Framework Directive; failed to consult with us on his decision; and failed to give proper reasons for his decision.
At no point, during a lengthy five-year procurement process, had the government indicated that PFI funding would not be available.”
Lord de Mauley
In the wake of the announcement, the Yorkshire authorities discussed the project with resource minister Lord de Mauley and asked him to reconsider the decision.
Mr Flinton explained: “We were extremely disappointed when Lord de Mauley, the Parliamentary Under Secretary said that the government would not change its decision to withdraw PFI credits for our waste management scheme. We had set out very clearly the impact that the withdrawal of waste infrastructure credits (previously Private Finance Initiative credits) would have on our project.”
Mr Flinton continued: The Waste PFI was projected to save up to 320 million on our waste management bills by significantly reducing the amount of waste going to landfill and reducing the amount of landfill tax the councils have to pay. At a time when public services are under extreme financial pressure, this saving will be an important contribution to avoiding cuts in other areas. AmeyCespa’s proposal also gives us a green solution for dealing with our household waste by recovering value from waste.
Details
While the two authorities are waiting for the outcome of their application to appeal, work is to continue, with Spanish-owned AmeyCespa, to finalise the details of the long term waste management project.
The partnership was planning to use the money to support the multi-million pound 25-year waste and recycling contract with AmeyCespa which is expected to see the firm develop and operate a 1.4 billion waste park and EfW incinerator at Allerton Waste Recovery Park.However, the outcome of the project is expected to be influenced by the decision over the funding credits.
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