Incinerator scheme left on back burner

Hull and East Riding Councils are inviting companies to apply for contracts worth £200 million over a 10-year period.

Rather than letting one big contract this time, the authorities have broken it into various lots, dealing with everything from managing the household waste recycling sites to composting.

The new contract will start in 2014, following the end of the councils’ contract with FCC Environmental, formerly Waste Recycling Group, which had planning permission but failed to build an incinerator at Saltend, near Hull, after costs soared.

John Skidmore, East Riding Council’s head of streetscene services, said they were expecting “highly-competitive” process.

He added: “Neither Hull Council not East Riding Council are building any treatment facilities with the new contracts that we are advertising.”

John Dennis, a councillor and member of campaign group Hull and East Riding Opposing the Incinerator (HOTI), said: “Reading between the lines and from discussions I’ve had in the past, the facilities for dealing with residual waste probably already exist.

“There are likely to be companies elsewhere that are under capacity because levels of waste are falling. All in all it sounds like good news but HOTI will keep an eye on the situation.”

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said: “It is reassuring to hear there are no such plans, but I will be watching the process with care to ensure my constituents don’t have an incinerator imposed on them.”

The aim is to increase recycling rates in the East Riding to 65 per cent and in Hull to 60 per cent by 2021.

Some areas in the East Riding which are piloting new fortnightly collections of both general waste and recycling bins have seen rates rise to 70 per cent.