Ministers could face courts over waste funds decision

Bradford councillors have been told by authority officials their proposed £300m waste facility in partnership with Calderdale Council should be abandoned if there is no change of heart from the Government.

Earlier this year, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told the two authorities the Government was withdrawing its support for the scheme as it was no longer needed to meet European Union waste targets.

A similar joint project by York and North Yorkshire County Councils and a third in Merseyside also had their promises of funding withdrawn.

The councils have criticised the decision, arguing they have already spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money preparing the schemes with the Government’s knowledge, only for Ministers to back out at the last moment.

Coun Andrew Thornton, Bradford Council’s executive member for environment and sustainability, said: “With our partners in Calderdale, Bradford Council has worked extremely hard and spent a significant amount of public money on this project.

“We were within a few months of signing contracts with the contractor and expected construction to start later this year.

“The project would have increased recycling rates, created energy from the residual waste, diverted 90 per cent of waste from landfill, regenerated a large area of the district and created jobs in construction and operation of the plant which would have come on-stream in 2016.”

If Bradford and Calderdale ask for a judicial review their application will focus on whether Defra had the authority to withdraw the credits, whether Government officials and politicians followed the correct procedures and whether the two councils should have been given notice as soon as a review of the decision to award the credits had begun.

The Yorkshire Post understands York Council is still considering its options while North Yorkshire County Council will make its position on legal action clear after tomorrow’s elections.

Skanska-led consortium Pennine Resource Recovery had been chosen as the preferred contractor to deliver the Bradford and Calderdale scheme.

Planning permission had been granted for the recycling and energy-from-waste plant in Bowling Back Lane and the contract was due to be signed this summer.

If the two incinerator projects do not go ahead the four councils will have to devise new plans for dealing with hundreds of tonnes of waste every year.

Councillors on Bradford Council’s executive will next week decide whether to suspend formally work on their incinerator scheme.