Monday 11 June 2012

Waste: More revelations from Cornwall Council

The issue of waste continues to make the headlines in Cornwall, with new revelations about Cornwall Council’s plan for a massive and unsustainable waste incinerator at St Dennis.

Last month, the Council admitted it is responsible for 90 per cent of SITA’s legal costs in dealing with the legal challenges brought by local campaigners (£130,000). This is set out in the “Integrated Waste Management Contract” agreed between the former County Council and SITA in 2006.

The Supreme Court will announce in July whether the latest challenge will be allowed to proceed to court.

But at a meeting on 20th June, Cornwall Council’s ruling Cabinet will be deciding whether to exercise its option to purchase land (from clay company Imerys) for the access road to the proposed incinerator site.

This was discussed at last week’s Waste Panel, when it was announced that the option must be exercised by 28th June or it will expire. The cost of the land would be a massive £3,550,000.

As someone who opposed the incinerator at the 2010 Public Inquiry, I know that the former County Council was determined to dump the incinerator in the China Clay Area at St Dennis. They were not interested in other locations, and studies to “identify” the best sites for the plant were carried out after the Council had already decided on their preferred location.

Evidence presented at the Inquiry demonstrated that Cornwall Council had “chosen” the St Dennis site at an early stage and throughout 2005 were looking in detail at the site.

The contract was agreed in October 2006 and specifically included the construction of an incinerator at St Dennis.

But at last week’s meeting, one of the officers (who had been involved with the project for many years) admitted that it wasn’t until after the Council has signed the contract that they realised the road access was unacceptable. It was only then that they decided to find a new way to access the site with land purchase costs alone of over three and a half million pounds.

This is yet another example of the issue of waste management has been mishandled at County Hall. Shocking!

2 comments:

Tredanek said...

What's the betting they will authorise £3.5 million for an access road to an incinerator nobody wants when they wouldn't spend a penny on a stadium everybody wants! Not that long until election time folks. Make sure you remember.
Nick Tamblin

Ross said...

"It was not until after the Council has signed the contract that they realised the road access was unacceptable."

What the hell are they doing signing a contract without conducting ALL the appropriate checks. You can download a list from online for goodness sake.

Find who was responsible for this and issue proceedings - they have failed at their job to the cost of £Millions.