PRESSURE is mounting on the administration at Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) after it was ordered to reveal key redacted figures, pricing strategy and financial information of its Javelin Park incinerator contract.
Since the Information Tribunal’s ruled against the council on Friday, analysts have been sifting through previously blacked-out details in the 1000+ page document to understand what the £500 million contract means for the people of Gloucestershire.
Conservative councillors involved in shaping the 25 year contract and backing the £200,000 tax-payer funded legal bill to key parts of it a secret are expected to come under heavy fire at a tense and politically-charged meeting at Shire Hall next Wednesday.
Opposition councillors from the Greens, Liberal Democrats and campaigners from 38 Degrees and GlosVAIN are preparing a barrage of questions, which will demand answers about recycling, overspending and value for money.
Fresh calls have even been made to scrap the incinerator project all together – an idea roundly rejected by the resolute administration, which is sticking to its guns about its arguments over commercial sensitivity and the benefits the incinerator will bring.
Ahead of the meeting, analysts from the Green Party in Stroud have claimed taxpayers will be over-charged by 200 per cent for burning their own waste – and raised concerns that recycling efforts in the county will be marginalised and undermined.
Cllr Sarah Lunnon, (below) Green county councillor for Stroud Central, who has campaigned against the incinerator for years, said: "It's no wonder the conservative cabinet wanted to keep these figures from the taxpayers.
“Half of what Gloucestershire plans to burn is organic - wood, paper, plants, this costs around £50 per tonne to process when separated.
“But rather than provide residents with simple effective, abundant recycling facilities for this material, we will be paying £146 per tonne, an extra 200 per cent, to incinerate it. This while pumping out CO2, destroying our climate and polluting our atmosphere.”
The council’s only Green continued: "This contract guarantees UBB's profits by agreeing to provide 108,000 tonnes of rubbish every year for 25 years at £146 per tonne, plus inflation. Yet the industry average is £95 per tonne.
“Its profits made the price for subsequent tonnage drops effectively undermining increases in recycling.
“It's a deliberate predatory pricing structure aimed at the recycling industry, funded by the taxpayer, the majority of who didn't want an incinerator, who want greater reuse and recycling of materials. You couldn't make it up.
"If this contract had been visible we could have had an informed debate on a better pricing structure would have been. Instead the industry has run rings round the Tory cabinet".
Eva Ward, the Green party politician who is vying to fill Cllr Lunnon’s seat when she steps down in May, added: “It makes me so angry that this contract was with-held.
“If every district in Gloucestershire recycled at the new Stroud levels Gloucestershire would have 70,000 tonnes of residual waste. Under this contract such tonnage would effectively incur a penalty of £6 million.
“This contract is a bad deal for recycling, a bad deal for tax-payers and a bad deal for Gloucestershire. To over-pay so much on waste and protect company profits while cutting children's services by millions is the product of a corrupt system.”
Meanwhile, a recycling group in Stroud which aims to rival the incinerator has gone one step further and called of GCC to terminate their contract with Urbaser Balfour Beatty all together.
Community R4C described the tribunal’s decision as “a resounding slap in the face for the county council who spent over £200,000 of taxpayers’ money trying to stop the public seeing it”.
“We have now had an opportunity to look at the information that the county council was trying to hide, and it shows that this deal is a very bad one for local taxpayers,” said Sue Oppenheimer, a member of the R4C board.
“Over the first 13 years of the contract, the incinerator actually costs considerably more than alternatives.
“Savings, which are much less than claimed, only occur after that. No one knows what the waste market will be like in 13 years’ time, so to bet on savings that far in the future is madness.
“Instead, the county council should terminate the contract now and enter into a cheaper short-term deal with an existing waste facility, and save millions each year on their revenue budget for essential services.”
Community R4C is producing a report showing the calculations behind their claims, which will be launched on March 31.
Responding directly to the Green’s claims, Cllr Ray Theodoulou, Conservative deputy leader of GCC, said: “The energy for waste facility is based on us hitting a 70 per cent recycling rate in the county.
“This is compared to 51 per cent we’re achieving at the moment, so there’s no doubt we need to be recycling more.
“We asked companies across Europe for a facility, using any technology, to get rid of Gloucestershire’s waste we can’t recycle. We chose the most cost effective of those bids.
“The facility will allow us to treat the rubbish that currently goes to landfill in a clean and efficient way and reduce the county’s carbon emissions by 40,000 tonnes a year.
“This is great news and will save taxpayers over £100 million, as well as generating enough clean electricity to power 25,000 homes at the same time.”
GCC maintains the facts about the ‘Energy from Waste’ facility have not changed.
It said: “We are proposing to develop a safe and sustainable facility at Javelin Park which will:
• Increase Gloucestershire’s renewable energy production by over 50%
• Generate enough electricity to power approximately 25,000 homes
• Divert over 92% of Gloucestershire’s residual waste from landfill thereby reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases
• Produce around 30,000 tonnes of sustainable aggregates each year
• Recover around 3,000 tonnes of metals, enough to build over 6,000 Javelin planes throughout the life of the contract
• Save council tax payers £190m over 25 years by protecting Gloucestershire’s taxpayers from the rising costs of landfill and energy prices
• Creating around 300 jobs during construction, and once the facility is up and running, around 40 people will be employed there
• Provide a range of opportunities for the local supply chain, with Gloucestershire-based businesses being prioritised
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