Norfolk County Council is calling on Communities and Local Government Secretary of State Eric Pickles to reimburse the taxpayer the £33.7-million cost of abandoning the Willows Power Plant project, after it was revealed that he had delayed making a decision on the future of the plant despite receiving a recommendation to approve the project from the Planning Inspector in September 2013.

Incinerator background

Despite having been granted planning permission in June 2012 and an Environment Agency permit in July of that year, the plans for the £500-million Willows Power & Recycling Centre in Saddlebow, Kings Lynn, were called in by Pickles in August 2012 after he found the project concerned ‘matters that are of substantial regional and national controversy’.

One such controversy was a petition signed by 65,000 people that argued the incinerator could cause health risks and would not adequately deal with the area’s waste (claims that developers Cory Environmental and Wheelabrator Technologies (Cory Wheelabrator) strenuously denied).

However, despite initially stating that a decision on the plant’s future would be made by 14 January 2014, no such decision was made, and – after being unable to secure a date by which the decision would be made – Norfolk County Council's Cabinet agreed to terminate the contract on 7 April 2014 to protect itself from incurring future costs. It had been estimated that for every day Pickles delayed making a decision, it cost the council £140,000.

As such, the council had to pay Cory Wheelabrator £33.7 million (£20.3 million of capped compensation, as well as public inquiry costs of £1.6 million, and costs relating to the ending of the ‘hedging arrangement’ of £11.8 million).

Cory Wheelabrator formally withdrew its plans for the facility last month.

Inspector recommendation

Norfolk County Council is now calling on Pickles to reimburse the taxpayer the £33.7 million costs of abandoning the contract, after it was revealed on Monday (9 February 2015) that the Planning Inspector had actually submitted a report to him on 30 September 2013 recommending that the plant’s plans be approved.

The 287-page report, written by inspector Elizabeth Hill, covers all of the concerns regarding the plant, but concludes (at length) that:

• the plant had met stringent enough conditions to achieve an environmental permit;
• the facility had lately achieved R1 status (and thus would be deemed as a waste ‘recovery’ rather than disposal facility, as some opponents had stated) – a fact that the inspector said carried ‘significant weight’;
• the facility ‘would not be harmful in terms of air quality’; and
• that ‘if the facility were not to be provided, it [would be] likely that potentially recoverable materials would continue to be landfilled, contrary to the hierarchy, for at least some years before another facility could be designed, granted planning permission, permitted and constructed’.

As such, she concludes: ‘I recommend that planning permission is granted for an energy from waste and recycling facility at Willows Business Park, High (Saddlebow) Road, Saddlebow Industrial Area, King’s Lynn, PE34 3 RD, subject to the conditions set out’ (such as technical reports on the site’s surface and foul waste drainage, amongst other stipulations).

‘Pickles should do the honourable thing and stump up the £33.7 million’

Speaking yesterday (11 February), George Nobbs, Leader of Norfolk County Council, stated: “The publication of this report is yet another episode in this sad, sorry saga. People may wish to reflect on the fact that this report was withheld by Mr Pickles’s department for 16 months, by which time the Willows project – which has cost so much to Norfolk people – was dead and buried.

“The application has been withdrawn, the council has taken incineration off the agenda for good, and it is only now that this report has been released by the government. I suppose this is what people mean by ‘the smoking gun’.”

Toby Coke, Chairman of the council’s Environment, Development and Transport Committee, added: “It’s perfectly clear that there was a political agenda being followed in delaying the planning inspector’s report and council taxpayers in Norfolk have been left with a huge bill as a result.

“All the talk about Mr Pickles carefully considering the arguments have been exposed for what they were – complete rubbish. Eric Pickles should do the honourable thing and stump up the £33.7 million that his delay has cost Norfolk taxpayers.”

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has previously written to Norfolk County Council saying it will not be providing any financial assistance to the council to help it cover its cancelled waste incineration contract, despite pleas for help.

A DCLG spokesman has since added: “Had the planning application not been withdrawn, ministers would have made a decision based on all the relevant considerations in this case. These would have included not only the inspector’s report, but also the considerable inquiry evidence, and that after the inquiry closed there had been changes to material facts including planning policy and guidance.

“All of the documents would have been considered in the round, and it is not possible to pre-judge the final outcome that could have been taken after proper consideration of this complex and changing case.”

Speaking of the news, the National Coordinator for anti-incineration group United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN), Shlomo Dowen, said: “Because relevant planning policies changed since the Planning Inspector wrote her report, the Secretary of State was right to invite fresh submissions based on these policy changes. There is every possibility that post-inquiry submissions might have persuaded the Secretary of State to refuse planning permission. We will never know.

“Whilst I appreciate Norfolk County Council’s frustration with the delays, and the associated expenses, it is clear that had the council heeded the voice of the people, expressed so clearly in the now famous referendum, and decided not to sign the incinerator contract in the first instance, that expense would not have arisen. As matters stand, the £33.7 million paid to terminate the contract was far less than the £90 million termination cost the council had estimated in May 2013, let alone the cost of replacing the £169 million of PFI credits withdrawn because the capacity was not needed. Hopefully, all councils will wake up to the fact that there is no justification for any new incineration capacity in the UK.”

Find out more about the Willows Power & Recycling Centre.