The proposed incinerator site at Saddlebow.
King’s Lynn incinerator vote may go elsewhere
By Shaun Lowthorpe
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
12:23 PM
Ministers could be asked to make a final decision on whether to allow the building of a controversial incinerator scheme in West Norfolk.
Norfolk County Council has selected Anglo-American firm Cory Wheelabrator as its preferred bidder to build the plant, near King’s Lynn, which would be capable of treating 170,000 tonnes of black bin waste and a further 90,000 tonnes of commercial waste.
But revelations that the council could be left with a £20.5m compensation bill if members reject the planning application for the £169m scheme has raised questions about the integrity of the process.
Questions have also been raised about the viability of the scheme after it emerged that a legal covenant exists on the site preventing the land being used for the commercial production of electricity – a key plank of the proposed energy from waste plan. A similar covenant derailed a previous bid for an incinerator in Costessey on the edge of Norwich.
Yesterday members of the council’s scrutiny committee, which had been put off calling the decision in because of the £600,000 costs of a delay, asked the cabinet to consider approaching the government to see if ministers could be asked to make the planning decision instead, after a suggestion from Labour councillor George Nobbs.
“I’m agnostic about the merits of the incinerator, but I am concerned that to the public this doesn’t look right,” Mr Nobbs said.
“I am amazed at how whiter than white we are, but I’m afraid that I can’t remove that fact from my mind. What’s important to the public is that the planning process is absolutely fair.”
Lib Dem councillor Tim East queried whether waste would have to be imported from other parts of the country as increased recycling rates would mean the plant would not have enough waste to treat, and he was also sceptical about the public consultation process, part of which would be carried out by Cory Wheelabrator. Green councillor Richard Bearman also asked why there would be a five-year wait before any reduction in carbon emissions at the site took place.
But Tory councillors Jim Shrimplin and Tony Adams took umbrage at the suggestion that members of the planning committee could be compromised by the compensation deal.
Mr Adams said: “I have never allowed any other consideration other than planning matters to determine my decision. I would take it as a personal slur if anybody suggested I might be influenced by any other matter.”
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3 comments
May I just respond to what Christine asks? Any waste development is a "county matter" where a two-tier system of local government is in place, and so the appropriate local planning authority in this case is Norfolk County Council(NCC). That would not prevent NCC, however, from delegating determination of the planning application to King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council. Anyone may request that the Secretary of State calls in a planning application for his own determination, following a public inquiry. However, the policy criteria for a call-in are unlikely to be met here. Incidentally, I have also posted an entry elsewhere on this website in similar terms to Christine's first three lines. It is disappointing to see the EDP perpetuating this myth, however unintentionally.
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John Martin
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Reference the above article - paragraph 2 states the cost of the scheme as £169million. This is in fact the PFI grant. The true cost is £552-668million over the 25year period of the contract. Also, the siting of incinerators is regulated under the land use system, where the operator must obtain permission from the local planning authority. In this case King's Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council. So can they ask the government to consider this?
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Christine
Thursday, November 25, 2010
This is not about the attitude or approach of any individual member of the planning committee. The concept of apparent bias, in the determination of planning applications, arises from background circumstances - in this case punitive clauses in an agreement with the applicant. (This is quite different from actual bias.) An appearance of bias, objectively viewed, is enough. Cllr Nobbs has hit the nail on the head. Ideally, the planning application should be called in by the Secretary of State, so that a public inquiry is held, but it is not the current policy of central government to do so with such a planning application as this. The proper course for Norfolk County Council is to delegate the task of determining the planning application to another local planning authority, as it is entitled to do. I suspect, however, that this is the last thing that it will agree to since it wants to see an incinerator at Saddlebow.
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John Martin
Wednesday, November 24, 2010