Norfolk County Council has signed a deal with Suffolk County Council that will see a proportion of its residual waste sent to Suffolk for incineration, after its own incineration plans were abandoned in April.

The agreement between the two authorities – which is subject to approval from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) – will see 20 per cent (40,000 tonnes) of Norfolk’s residual household waste sent to SITA UK’s new 269,000 tonne per annum energy-from-waste (EfW) incineration plant in Great Blakenham from August.

Suffolk is currently contracted to send around 170,000 tonnes of waste for treatment at SITA’s plant, which accepted its first load of waste last month and recently received permission to utilise surplus heat from the incineration process to warm a commercial greenhouse project that will grow food produce, such as tomatoes.

The two councils have said that they could save around £1 million each through the deal, with Suffolk County Council benefitting from ‘economies of scale’ – as it will be sending more waste to the Great Blakenham plant, thus reducing the treatment cost per tonne – while Norfolk will avoid paying hefty landfilling charges.

Norfolk County Council has said that instead of paying £80 a tonne for the waste to be landfilled at the Aldeby site near Beccles, the waste (collected from households in North Norfolk and the Great Yarmouth area) will be transported to and from the Suffolk plant in eight heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) per day, using the designated lorry routes across the two counties’ road networks.

SITA UK's energy-from-waste incinerator in Great Blakenham

Sharing services ‘will bring mutual benefits’

Speaking of the deal, Leader of Norfolk County Council, George Nobbs, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with my fellow leader in Suffolk and set up this new and historic way of sharing services between our two counties.

“This deal demonstrates unequivocally that local authorities like us have the determination, the will, the ability and the maturity to share their services where such arrangements will bring mutual benefits. That is certainly the case with this agreement.”

Councillor Mark Bee, Leader of Suffolk County Council, added: “We have always believed that our energy-from-waste facility is a good environmental solution for Suffolk and great for the tax payer.

“The contract will save £8 million by stopping waste going into landfill in Suffolk, so I am delighted to add to that figure in a way that financially benefits both our councils.”

He added that the deal was “not only good news for both county councils, but for all those living in Norfolk and Suffolk”.

Norfolk incinerator background

Proposals for the deal were first started in May, after Norfolk County Council’s cabinet unanimously voted to abandon its King’s Lynn incinerator contract with Cory Wheelabrator.

The decision was made after it was found that for every day the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, delayed making a decision on the plant’s planning permission, it cost the council £140,000.

As Pickles had not revealed when a decision would be made, the council decided that breaking its contract earlier, rather than later, would protect it from future costs.

However, it had to pay £20.3 million of capped compensation to Cory Wheelabrator, as well as public inquiry costs of £1.6 million, and exchange rate and interest rate related costs of £8.36 million (bringing the total to around £30 million) as a result of breaking its contract.

These costs will reportedly be met through a £19-million contingency reserve built up for the purpose, £3 million left over from the council's 2013/14 budget, and £8 million from general reserves, on the basis that the council 'takes immediate steps to replenish those reserves'.

Find out more about Norfolk County Council’s decision to abandon its incineration project, or SITA’s energy-from-waste plant in Great Blakenham.