Norfolk contract award under scrutiny

Norfolk county council has launched an inquiry into the political decision making around the award of its 500 million energy from waste contract which was terminated last week.

The county council took the decision to scrap the controversial contract, which had been awarded to a Cory Wheelabrator consortium, at a meeting last week (see letsrecylce.com story).

The decision was reached as the council had claimed that a delay in planning consent from the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles had caused the projects value for money to drop due to rising costs and a shortened contract payback period.

Norfolk county council is likely to incur costs of around 30.26 million as a result of its decision to scrap the deal.

And, councillors yesterday (April 14) announced that an internal inquiry will be carried out in order to provide transparency over how the council reached its decision to award the contract in February 2012, and why this was then upturned.

The inquiry is being led by former councillor Stephen Revell, a Liberal Democrat member of the council from 1985 to 2001. He was also chairman of the councils standards committee from 2010 to 2012, and an independent member of the Police Authority Standards Committee from 2005 to 2012.

‘Constructive’

Mr Revell said: Im aware what a divisive issue this has been for Norfolk and I hope I can have a constructive role to play in getting to the bottom of how the decision to proceed was arrived at. If I need to ruffle a few feathers along the way, so be it.

I gave this challenge very careful thought before deciding whether to accept it. Now that I have done so, I will take account of all sides of the argument before reaching my own conclusions. I hope anybody that knows me will realise that I will carry out my duties in a fair but effective manner.

Mr Revell is to present a full report of his findings to the council, which is intended to then be made publicly available.

Norfolk council leader councillor George Nobbs, added: A full public inquiry is not in my power and, in any case would be vastly expensive and take years to complete. However, I do accept the public are entitled to further answers and I am delighted that Stephen Revell has agreed to take this task forward.

I cant think of anyone else in Norfolk whose integrity would be accepted on all sides and who already has thorough knowledge of the background of how these decisions are arrived at.

I have already said that lessons need to be learnt and I am determined that they will be learnt. We do need a no fear or favour approach and I am pleased that Mr Revell has responded positively to my call.