Judgement awaited in Veolia disclosure dispute

A two-day hearing took place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week after Veolia Environmental Services obtained an interim injunction at the beginning of July to prevent Nottinghamshire council officials from releasing information about costs relating to its long-term waste contract. This followed a request by local resident and anti-incineration campaigner, Shlomo Dowen.

The outcome could have a wider impact on the confidentiality of existing and future waste contracts in the UK, as French-owned Veolia claims that its ability to compete for future deals could be jeopardised if commercially sensitive information is made public.

Mr Dowen submitted a request to the Nottinghamshire for contract information in a bid to see what price was being paid for various waste treatment method used by Veolia under the 26-year waste management contract it signed with Nottinghamshire in 2006 (see letsrecycle.com story). However, Veolia obtained an interim injunction to prevent this. As a result, Nottinghamshire county council took them to court in a bid to quash the injunction.

Mr Justice Cranston, hearing the case in London, said he would give a judgement at a later date and it is expected in a few weeks.

Confidentiality

Veolia claimed that it had pursued the injunction due to the fact that it already “put a great deal of information into the public domain” and voiced concerns over the damage of making commercial sensitive information publically available.

A spokesman for Veolia Environmental Services said: “Our concern is that if commercially sensitive information is made public then it could give an advantage to our competitors at a time when we are working to secure the long term future of our business and our workforce.”

“Naturally any business would be concerned if commercially sensitive information was made openly available to its direct competitors.”

The spokesman added: “In terms of accessibility to contractual information we want to get the balance absolutely right and a court judgement will bring certainty and provide clarity to local authorities, the public and the waste management industry.”

A spokesman for Nottinghamshire county council told letsrecycle.com: “The hearing was a two-day case which ended yesterday and due to the reserved judgement we may not hear the outcome for a couple of weeks. As a result we are not able to comment on this matter further at this stage.”

Case

In the case, Mr Dowen was represented by lawyers from Friends of the Earth's rights and justice centre as an interested party at the hearing. He said: “Nottinghamshire residents have a right to see how tens of millions of pounds of our money is being spent, and our waste is being dealt with. Veolia must not be allowed to keep this information secret.”

Andy Atkins, executive director at Friends of the Earth, said: “The law gives the public explicit rights to see this type of information precisely so that they can hold authorities to account on major issues such as waste disposal. Companies must realise that members of the public have a right to know how enormous sums of their money is being spent.”

Mr Dowen has already accessed some information from the council and has asked the District Auditor to investigate amount of money it is charging Nottinghamshire's county council in respect of landfill tax.