Kenilworth and Southam Liberal Democrats

Tories and Labour vote down bid to halt incinerator project

The Conservative and Labour groups on Warwickshire County Council joined forces today to defeat a Liberal Democrat motion aimed at halting Project Transform - the £1 billion joint project between Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to build a replacement for the Coventry incinerator.

Cllr John Whitehouse

Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey), the Lib Dem spokesperson for Environment & Economy, spoke in support of the motion as follows:-

"On 21st October 2008 this Council approved the Outline Business Case for Project Transform going forward, but with strict caveats in terms of:

- setting strategies to minimise waste and maximise recycling;

- a level playing field in terms of the possible technology solutions for waste disposal;

- regular reporting back to elected members.

"The evaluation criteria for the contract award decision were approved by the Cabinet on 17th December 2009. The final contract is expected to be awarded in April 2012.

"So, why are we bringing this motion forward today? What's the urgency? No doubt the Portfolio Holder will tell us later on that nothing will be decided finally until the contract is signed. Why don't we just wait until then?

"Well, firstly, over the coming year project costs for the three authorities will be over £1.3 million, more than £25,000 a week. Warwickshire's share will be £578,000, which is £273,000 more than originally budgeted. In the light of the massive cuts being made to other vital budgets across this Council, we'd better be certain that the money being spent on Project Transform is not wasted.

"Secondly, the best opportunity to get the sizing right for a future waste facility has been lost. In the Outline Business Case we were obliged by DEFRA to use out of date waste flow projections, but in January this year the whole waste flow model was re-run with more current data. The outcome? The sizing was shaded down from 305,000 tonnes to 283,000 tonnes, a reduction of only 7%. Why? Because the model:

- continues to be based on housing growth projections that go way beyond even those in the RSS;

- assumes waste per household continues to increase even though average households are getting smaller;

- has recycling and composting rates 'plateauing' at 54% by 2020, with no further improvements over the next 20 years.

"We think the new waste flow figures are an unacceptable basis to go further with this project. We challenged them in detail over two weeks ago, but to date there has been no response from either the project team or the Portfolio Holder.

"The third reason to stop now is that the objective of a real choice of technology solutions to our future needs for residual waste disposal has virtually disappeared at the very first stage of the procurement process. Companies which might have delivered alternative technologies to energy from waste (i.e. incineration) have voted with their feet and not even bothered to put forward an expression of interest. Why? One can only assume they saw the writing on the wall. With costs of an unsuccessful PFI bid in the region of £3 million, companies needed to be confident that a 'level playing field' was more than just words.

"As things stand today, when the six remaining bidders present their outline solutions next month the odds are that all but one will be energy from waste plants, probably based at the reference site in Coventry. A real technology choice will have all but disappeared at the very first stage of procurement.

"So, three major reasons to stop now and think again about the whole strategy. What are the arguments for carrying on?

"The first one seems to be that we might lose the PFI funding opportunity if we change course now. Is this an argument for building something we don't want and might be much too big for our needs? The PFI process is very costly for both procurers and bidders, and highly rigid and inflexible. Other local authorities have pulled out of similar deals in the last year or so, or wished they could do so.

"The second argument seems to be that Warwickshire has a desperate need to stop burying its residual waste in holes in the ground, and any delay at all in the Project Transform timetable could cost this authority millions as landfill taxes continue to ramp up in future years.

"In fact, the County is way ahead of its targets for diverting waste from landfill, down 18% this year compared with last. Increased tonnages to be sent to the existing Coventry incinerator have been negotiated for next year onwards, and there is additional capacity at the Coventry plant we could bid for. The existing incinerator does not need to be scrapped by 2016 as Project Transform assumes. Its current life expectancy is at least to 2020, and could readily be extended at low cost - as was done recently for its sister plant in Nottinghamshire.

"So there you have it. Three compelling reasons to call a halt now, and two flawed arguments for carrying on regardless.

"We don't want to stop working in partnership with Coventry and Solihull on our future waste strategy if we can avoid it, but to continue with the current project would be folly. We hope that this Council will decide on a new direction today, and can then persuade its partners to work with us in pursuing it. Please support the motion."