Veolia slams DCLGs Herts planning ruling

Estelle Brachlianoff, the UK head of environmental services firm Veolia, has criticised DCLG for inefficiency in rejecting planning permission for the firms proposed Hatfield energy from waste plant.

The company is currently considering whether to appeal the Departments decision last month (see letsrecycle.com story) to overturn Hertfordshire county councils approval of plans for the 380,000 tonnes-per-year capacity plant at New Barnfield, Ms Brachlianoff confirmed.

‘…there were a lot of people in government who wanted this project to happen, in terms of giving financing and giving approval but you had one or two politicians who have decided to kill it and who have succeeded…’

Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia

Following an inquiry lasting more than a year, Eric Pickles DCLG decided that the plant should not be built due to its potential impact on Green Belt land and the likelihood that it would prevent other waste treatment infrastructure from being developed in the area.

Opposition to the plant was led by former DCLG minister and Welwyn & Hatfield MP Grant Shapps, who claimed he was delighted with the decision to overturn planning permission for the plant.

Efficiency

Speaking to letsrecycle.com in an exclusive interview this week, Ms Brachlianoff, Veolia’s senior executive vice president for UK and Ireland, argued that the decision highlighted a lack of efficiency within government and warned that it would send a bad signal to investors from overseas looking to finance waste projects within the UK.

She said: Hertfordshire launched the process a very long time ago with the blessing of the authorities in this country through the PFI process, so they were blessed by one part of the government, because it was a good way to avoid sending waste to landfill.

We were appointed preferred bidder years ago and we found the site, which it was agreed was the only site in Hertfordshire where the facility could be built. We were awarded planning permission from the local authorities, so basically everybody locally wanted this project. It was only for political reasons that it was called in.

Green Belt

Ms Brachlianoff also argued that while the site earmarked for the plant was situated on Green Belt land, it had largely been agreed there were very few other sites within the county that could have accommodated the plant.

If I am becoming a little bit more political, will all the equipment like energy from waste be located in the North East for the sake of everything that happens in the Greater London area and the South? she added.

Veolia’s UK head claimed that the project would have saved the local authority an estimated 667 million in landfill costs over 25 years, as well as producing heat for around 50,000 homes in the area through a planned district heating network.

Pinewood

Meanwhile, she also pointed out that DCLG approved the large-scale expansion of Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire also on Green Belt land.

At exactly the same time planning permission was granted for Pinewood Studios in the Green Belt, does this mean that it is more important to shoot films in this country than it is to make something out of your waste that is going to landfill?

Asked whether she thought the decision represented a lack of political will to back waste projects, Ms Brachlianoff added: That is very true, there were a lot of people in government who wanted this project to happen, in terms of giving financing and giving approval but you had one or two politicians who have decided to kill it and who have succeeded, against all the views of all the others which were based on fact and need.

For me it sends a very bad signal to foreign investors who invest in the UK with foreign money to create UK wealth and jobs. The reason why I am very annoyed is that Veolia had the choice to invest here [in this project] or in other areas of the world and we have cancelled other projects outside of the UK to provide money for this.

Diversity

During the interview Ms Brachlianoff also commented on her work to encourage more women to work within the waste sector, and said she was keen to promote diversity across all areas of Veolia.

She said: In terms of why it is important, I genuinely believe that diversity links with innovation and performances. Not just in terms of gender balance, but all types of diversity. If you have people with all the same career background and same experience you get the same results each time.

Weve already made a lot of progress in the two years since I was appointed, starting from the top with the executive committee which is incredibly more diverse than it was.