A report set to go before Norfolk county council next week has recommended terminating the controversial 25-year, 500 million energy-from-waste (EfW) contract with consortium Cory Wheelabrator.
Published yesterday (Mach 31), the report suggests scrapping the contract which would cost the council 30 million on the ground of planning failure as there is no prospect of financial close prior to the 31 July 2014.
Cory Wheelabrator a consortium of Cory Environmental and Wheelabrator said it was extremely disappointed by the reports recommendation, adding that scrapping the Willows EfW project would leave Norfolk with no long-term solution for the countys waste.
Following a Public Inquiry last summer over the councils decision to award planning permission to the Willows EfW project in February 2012, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles had been expected to make a final decision on the proposed development early this year.
A spokesman for DCLG said that a decision would be made “in due course”. Council leader George Nobbs wrote to Mr Pickles last month claiming the council was being prejudiced financially by the delay in the decision from the DCLG minister (see letsrecycle.com story).
According to the council, the delay in Mr Pickles decision has seen the schemes value for money reduce with each weeks delay as costs rise and the contract payback period is shortened.
‘We are naturally extremely disappointed by the recommendations in this report, particularly as many years of hard work have gone into this project by the consortium and Norfolk county council. We believed that the Public Inquiry would have provided a fair hearing for all parties and that a decision would be based on pure planning grounds.’
Cory Wheelabrator
In addition, Defra last year also withdrew 169 million funding for the project (see letsrecycle.com story ). The council claims that the combination of the funding withdrawal and the delay in decision over planning means that by June 2014 savings to Norfolks taxpayers originally guaranteed to be more then 250m will have completely flat-lined.
Costs
Council officers have recommended that scrapping the contract is now the most sensible decision because Cory Wheelabrator is now seeking an increase in the capped costs of termination (30 million) through planning failure.
However, the cost of terminating the contract is expected to be around 30 million, of which only 19 million is available from council reserves set up for this purpose.
According to the report: The remaining 11m will have to be found from reserves in the short term, but action will needed to be taken in-year to bring reserves back up to an acceptable level and a report from the Interim Director of Finance giving proposals on how the shortfall should be handled will be taken to the May Cabinet meeting.
Councillors will now consider the reports recommendation at an extraordinary meeting of the cabinet next Monday (April 7) when they meet to take a decision on whether to continue with the EfW project.
Council leader Mr Nobbs said: When council in October voted for continuation of the contract, that was on the basis that it still represented good value for money. However, that was based upon accepting the Secretary of State at his word when he said he would give his decision on the Planning Inquiry on or before 14 January. Mr Pickles decision or rather the total lack of it has been the real game-changer, and has made a nonsense of government rhetoric about speedier decisions on major infrastructure projects.
He added: The result has been that we are being asked to gamble with Norfolk county councils financial future, and that we will not do.
Cory Wheelabrator
Cory Wheelabrator also voiced its frustration with the perceived delay from government over a planning decision for the Willows EfW project.
A spokesperson for the consortium said: We are naturally extremely disappointed by the recommendations in this report, particularly as many years of hard work have gone into this project by the consortium and Norfolk county council. We believed that the Public Inquiry would have provided a fair hearing for all parties and that a decision would be based on pure planning grounds.
Related Links
We, and the industry, have also made it clear to government that planning delays to major infrastructure projects are costly and can jeopardise them and this project looks set to become yet another example. The delay to that planning decision has resulted in considerable costs to all parties at a time when public funds are already stretched. The fact still remains that there is no firm solution for the long-term management of Norfolks waste.”
DCLG
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said: This is a complex planning application which is being carefully considered with due process, following an immense number of representations, including numerous post-inquiry representations. A decision will be made in due course.
The recommendation to scrap the contract comes just weeks after the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) announced a commitment to invest 51 million in the project (see letsrecycle.com story), which would see 268,000 tonnes of Norfolks residual waste treated each year.
Currently, there is no waste treatment alternative in the county proposed to the Willows EfW plant, although a report by consultancy Eunomia published last year suggested that exporting Norfolk’s residual as a refuse derived fuel (RDF) or solid recovered fuel (SRF) would be cheaper than the contract with Cory Wheelabrator (see letsrecycle.com story).
Subscribe for free