That is the finding of a report by council officers drafted for the Joint Advisory Committee on Waste Management of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Kingston upon Hull city council.
The Secretary of State dismissed an appeal over planning permission for a 30m, 160,000 tonne energy from waste incinerator on May 13, 2003 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Councillors in the Joint Advisory Committee held their first meeting in 15 months last week to look at the impact of the decision over the incinerator. One of the reports the councillors looked at included an initial assessment of the additional cost the Secretary of State's decision would mean for the two councils.
The report said: “Not developing the incinerator at Foster Street within the contractual timescales will have serious financial consequences for the Authorities. These consequences result from the fact that more waste will need to be landfilled from February 2005 than would have been the case had the incinerator been operational as planned.”
It went on: “At present, only the cost of the additional landfill tax incurred can be determined as the value of the tax is known as is the tonnes of waste the incinerator would have handled. Even assuming both Authorities meet their statutory recycling targets, the cost of landfill tax in the financial year 2005-06 will be 2,162,000 more than if the incinerator was operational.”
The council officers pointed out that there would also be an impact from tradable landfill permits being brought in by the government's Waste and Emissions Trading Bill. Though the officers said this impact could be quantified yet, their report warned that “figures of between 100 and 160 per tonne have been rumoured”.
Options
Speaking to letsrecycle.com yesterday, a spokeswoman for the committee said that the councillors had noted the report, and that council officers were now looking at how the council would proceed.
“There were three options after the incinerator was rejected,” the spokeswoman said. “Firstly to appeal the Secretary of State's decision. The council has decided not to go down this route. The other options are to look for another site for the incinerator, or to look at other technologies.”
Council officers are now looking at new technologies that might replace the proposed incinerator, while also looking at the possibility of new sites, she said. Both these reviews are expected to be completed by October 2003.
The two councils have had a joint waste contract with Waste Recycling Group since April 2002. The contract involves the disposal of 308,188 tonnes of material each year, of which 265,243 tonnes was landfilled in 2002-03 (87%).
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