The county council and City of York council’s 25-year, £1.4 billion deal with waste management company AmeyCespa to develop the Allerton Waste Recovery Park can now move to financial close after county councillors voted 38 to 17 in favour of the contract.
It follows the decisions of the county council executive and City of York councillors, which had already discussed and endorsed the proposal at meetings on September 9 2014.
First agreed in 2010, the deal represents the first waste PFI contract won by Spanish-owned AmeyCespa in the UK, despite the contract facing local opposition from anti-incinerator campaigners.
There has also been concern about the cost of the contract, after Defra withdrew PFI funding for the project in February 2013, concluding it was not needed to meet 2020 landfill diversion targets (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, according to a council report to yesterday’s meeting, after a new financial package was put together by AmeyCespa, a financial assessment has concluded that the project “remains affordable and offers value for money based on key assumptions and allowing for sensitivities”.
The county council also said the development will contribute £220 million to the local economy over the lifetime of the contract and generate enough electricity to power a town the size of Harrogate – a carbon saving equivalent to 12,000 cars.
A judicial review of Defra’s decision to pull PFI funding was dropped by the county council earlier this year, after which it sought new financial support for the deal, which it said in May that it was confident of finding (see letsrecycle.com story).
Allerton Park
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Situated at the Allerton quarry and landfill site near Knaresborough in the county, the development includes a 320,000 tonnes per year thermal treatment EfW plant, which according to council documents has the capability to be reconfigures to combined heat and power (CHP) ‘if a suitable market can be established’.
In addition, the development will include anaerobic digestion (AD) to treat 40,000 tonnes per year of garden and food waste and mechanical sorting and reclamation of 20,000 tonnes a year of recyclable materials left in the waste arriving at the facility.
Following yesterday’s decision, a spokesperson for AmeyCespa commented: “We look forward to working in partnership with North Yorkshire county council and City of York council to provide a waste facility which secures a sustainable long term waste management service for North Yorkshire and York.
“Allerton Waste Recovery Park is a common sense solution for dealing with North Yorkshire and York’s waste and will save local taxpayers millions of pounds. In addition, it will increase recycling, generate renewable electricity, create jobs and provide an economic boost for local suppliers.”
While planning permission for the facility was approved in October 2012, the development has suffered delays as the incinerator was subject to opposition from the North Yorkshire Waste Action Group (see letsrecycle.com story).
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