West Norfolk to fight incinerator on planning

The comments came after the council was denied the opportunity to launch a judicial review against a decision made by the former Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman to award 91 million in PFI funding to the project (see letsrecycle.com story).

Instead, after seeking legal advice, the council said this month (October 18) that it will focus on preparing a case against the construction of the EfW facility which will be put before a public inquiry by the planning inspectorate later this year.

Councillor Nick Daubney, leader of the borough council, said: The advice of our barrister was to focus our resources on the course of action that would be most likely to give us the outcome that the people of west Norfolk want.

Commenting on the inquiry, he added: It is our chance to put as robust a case as possible to the planning inspector, clearly setting out why building an incinerator in King’s Lynn is not the right thing to do. We believe that this is our best chance of stopping this project therefore we have decided to withdraw from the judicial review and focus all our efforts on fighting this battle from a planning point of view.

The council claims a broad consensus of support does not exist for the facility after a poll of local residents found that 92% voted no to the project. Other reasons for the councils opposition to the EfW incinerator include: objections relating to the proximity principle the idea that waste should be treated where it is generated; the environmental impacts of the plant on local wildlife; and, the potential for other sites that had a lower risk of flooding.

The facility has also come under fire from a number of other parties including Norwich city council which wrote to Caroline Spelman highlighting its opposition to any form of incineration and local group Kings Lynn Without Incineration (KLWIN) which claims the facility will be a blight to the area.

Judicial review

Following the decision by the High Court to refuse the judicial review, Cllr Daubney said that the council was still concerned about the decision to award the PFI credits. He explained that it will continue to work with parliamentary representatives to scrutinise the decision as he said he felt strongly that the financing package, the projected costs and pre-contract agreements made with Cory Wheelabrator require further explanation.

“We believe that this is our best chance of stopping this project therefore we have decided to withdraw from the judicial review and focus all our efforts on fighting this battle from a planning point of view.”

– Cllr Nick Daubney

He added: The most important thing is that we make the strongest case against the incinerator and the one that is most likely to succeed and I hope that the people of west Norfolk will engage fully with this process.

The council is looking at other options for the treatment of residual waste and earlier this year announced plans to pursue an alternative technology under a proposed contract with Material Works.

Facility

The EfW facility at Willows Business Park in Kings Lynn is being proposed by a consortium of Cory Environmental and US incineration specialist Wheelabrator under a 500 million, 25-year contract with Norfolk county council which was signed in February this year. The facility would have the capacity to process up to 268,000 tonnes of waste every year, generating enough electricity to power 36,000 homes.

The decision to grant planning permission for the facility, which has been approved by Norfolk county council, was called in by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in June 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story). This means a public inquiry will now take place, allowing all parties a chance to voice their opinions. The inquiry will be held on February 26 2013 and is expected to last for approximately 20 days.

Service

The news comes as the council announced change to its waste and recycling collections, which will be introduced in April 2013. The changes include the introduction of weekly food waste collections and a move to alternate weekly collections of residual and recyclables.

Under the service, residents in Kings Lynn and West Norfolk will have residual waste collected in a 240-litre black wheeled bin one week and recyclables in 240-litre green wheeled bin the next. Residents will also receive a 7-litre kitchen caddy and 23-litre bin for the collection of food waste.

Commenting on the new service, Cllr Brian Long, cabinet member for environment, said: The introduction of alternate weekly collections has been proven elsewhere to increase the amount that people recycle. We are hopeful that the new service could increase our recycling rates from 37% to around 50%. The new service will also reduce our costs by a further 500,000 per year, enabling us to keep our element of the council tax bill down.