SITA UKs planning permission to build a large scale energy-from-waste facility at St Dennis to treat all Cornwalls residual household waste for the next 25 years has been overturned in Londons High Court.
In a ruling today (October 13) Mr Justice Collins upheld an appeal brought by the Cornwall Waste Forum St Dennis Branch campaign group against approval for the project which was granted on appeal by Eric Pickles, secretary of state for communities and local government, in May 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story). Cornwall council claimed todays decision could cost it at least 6 million in additional landfill and haulage costs.
The appeal was brought by the group under Section 288 of the Town and Country Act 1990. It claimed Mr Pickles had failed to consider the projects impact on local conservation areas in the way it had expected when he was considering SITAs appeal against an earlier refusal for the plans. A two day hearing took place on Tuesday and Wednesday (October 11 and 12).
Last month, work began on access roads for the EfW project after Cornwall council decided the risk of starting the project before the campaign groups appeal was heard was outweighed by the cost of delaying it until after a decision was made. The council cited legal advice which suggested Mr Pickles had a good chance of defeating the legal challenge (see letsrecycle.com story).
In a statement issued today, the council said the decision to overturn the projects approval was extremely disappointing and issued a stark warning over the impact the decision could have on its budget due to the delays it could cause to the project.
While it is not possible to accurately predict how long this issue will take to resolve, each months delay costs the Council around 1 million in landfill tax and haulage costs creating serious implications for the Councils budget, it said.
This means a delay of up to six months would cost the Council at least 6 million the equivalent of providing 400,000 hours of care for vulnerable people living at home, funding all the Councils community leisure facilities, keeping the streets of Cornwall clean for 12 months or repairing potholes and treating roads during the coming winter months. It would also be the equivalent of increasing council tax by 5%.
The council said it would now be meeting with SITA over the next few weeks to identify a serious of interim measures to reduce waste costs and services in Cornwall in light of the additional pressures on its budget caused by the decision.
Appeal
It is understood that the Treasury Solicitor, acting on behalf of Mr Pickles, has been granted leave to appeal the decision and the Secretary of State is now expected to review details of the judgement before deciding what action the government will take.
The council statement added: The Council will be pressing for an early resolution as further delays will not only extend uncertainty over this process but could prove financially disastrous for people in Cornwall.
The judgement was also greeted with consternation by SITA UK, whose project director, David Buckle, said: This judgment gives us cause for considerable concern and we will need to study the detail of this decision and consider any possible remedies.
We have always believed that the CERC is the best technical, financial and environmental solution for managing Cornwalls waste and it is important that the scheme is able to progress, as without it Cornwall is facing an enormous waste problem.
While Cornwall council has previously considered scrapping its PFI-funded contract with SITA UK (see letsrecycle.com story), the cost of pursuing an alternative was last month put at 322 million.
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