DCLG minister Mr Pickles decided not to uphold Herts county council’s planning for the plant near Hatfield in August following an inquiry lasting more than a year.
Veolia had planned to construct the 380,000 tonnes per year capacity New Barnfield facility as part of its £800 million contract with Herts council, signed in July 2011. Mr Pickles cited the potential impact of the development on Green Belt land among the reasons for the decision going against Veolia.
The project suffered a further set back in October when Defra opted to remove its PFI funding support for the project, withdrawing £115 million of credits that had been allocated for the facility in February 2009.
Veolia’s appeal against the decision made by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is due to be heard in the High Court on December 16-17.
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Future
But, Hertfordshire council’s cabinet met today (November 10) to discuss the future of the project, and councillors voted in favour of seeking an alternative option from the waste firm.
The council is also set to closely monitor the progress of the legal challenge by Veolia, but it will ask the contractor to work on alternative proposals in case the case against the government is unsuccessful. Veolia has previously expressed its confidence in achieving success in the case (see letsrecycle.com story).
Terry Douris, cabinet member for waste management at Hertfordshire county council, said: “Veolia will be asked to prepare an alternative option for the long-term treatment of Hertforshire’s residual waste. They will have six months to complete this work. We’ll then carefully consider their proposal before deciding whether to continue with Veolia or request termination of the contract.
“Under the existing contract, Veolia’s preparation of an alternative option comes at no extra cost to Hertfordshire county council. As we have free access to Veolia’s expertise, it would be short sighted not to ask them for an alternative to New Barnfield. We have plans in place to deal with waste up to 2021 so we have sufficient time to come up with a long-term solution that is both environmentally and financially sound.”
As a result of delays to the project, Herts has secured waste residual waste treatment contracts until 2018, which it has the option to extend for an additional three years.
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