Close vote sees Norfolk councillors favour EfW

Norfolk county councillors have today (October 28) voted in favour of continuing with plans for a controversial 500 million energy-from-waste (EfW) plant near Kings Lynn.

This follows a shock move earlier this month (October 18) by Defra to withdraw funding for the 25-year PFI contract with Cory Wheelabrator to treat the countys waste, which includes the construction of the 268,000 tonnes-per-year capacity EfW incinerator (see letsrecycle.com story).

Defra said it expected to have sufficient infrastructure in England to meet EU landfill targets and therefore decided not to help fund the Norfolk contract.

But, at a special meeting of the council today, a close vote saw 40 councillors in favour of going ahead with the facility and 38 against, with six councillors absent from the meeting.

The outcome of the vote will now form a recommendation to the councils cabinet, which will make a final decision on whether to press forward with the waste contract at a special extra meeting tomorrow morning (October 29).

The councillors voted in favour of a revised plan for the contract and incinerator, which will see the councils operating budget used instead of the funds originally pledged by Defra.
However, should plans for the incinerator now go ahead, the council said that even without the Defra funding the 25-year contract would still save taxpayers around 20 million over its lifetime, compared to the current arrangement through which most of the councils waste is sent to landfill.

Decision

According to the council, rejecting this revised plan and cancelling the contract would trigger an obligation for it to make a payment of 20-30 million to Cory Wheelabrator within weeks of such a decision, which would effectively bankrupt the council.

However, if the cabinet votes in favour of todays recommendation, the Kings Lynn EfW plant is still subject to the outcome of a public inquiry into the councils decision to award planning permission for the facility (see letsrecycle.com story).

The inquiry concluded in May 2013 and communities secretary Eric Pickles is set to make a final decision in January 2014.

Todays council vote follows the publication of a Eunomia report earlier this month, which found that shipping Norfolks waste to incinerators in the Netherlands could be up to 34 per tonne cheaper than through the 25-year incinerator contract (see letsrecycle.com story).