Delight for campaigners as budget cuts limits possibility of waste incinerator (From Stroud News and Journal)

Delight for campaigners as budget cuts limits possibility of waste incinerator

4:48pm Thursday 21st October 2010 in News By Nick Wakefield

CAMPAIGNERS are delighted that the possible building of a large-scale incinerator near Haresfield could be scrapped after funding for the controversial project was withdrawn in Chancellor Osborne’s cuts.

The final contract was due to be awarded for a county-wide residual waste plant, which may be built at Javelin Park off Junction 12 of the M5, by spring next year.

But the Spending Review means the offer of £92 million of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) cash needed to fund the project will now be halted.

Gloucestershire County Council is one of seven authorities to have PFI support withdrawn after it was announced the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which handles waste PFI funding, would reduce spending by 29 per cent and capital spending by 34 per cent by 2014/15.

GCC paid £7.4 million for Javelin Park in January 2009 in order to secure PFI credits to open bidding for a new waste management facility to reduce the amount sent to landfill.

It always maintained incineration was one of four technologies being considered but campaigners claimed the decision was a forgone conclusion and launched a huge petition against it.

Mary Newton, waste officer for Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth (FOE) said: "We is delighted at the news that local taxpayers will not have to pay millions of pounds over the next 25 years for a waste PFI facility that the county does not need.

"Waste in Gloucestershire is already reducing through recycling and at the Gloucestershire FOE conference held just 2 weeks ago we showed how the county could increase its recycling rate and move towards Zero Waste by letting communities have more say in how their waste is collected and dealt with."

Councillor Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment at GCC, added: "We knew the government had to take tough decisions today to address the country’s deficit but we are obviously disappointed.

"The need to find a sustainable alternative to landfill in Gloucestershire remains, as we will very soon run out of landfill space.

"My job now is to ensure the solution is good value for council taxpayers and we will be working with Defra to understand all the options.

"Under the current regime, landfill taxes are an unacceptable financial burden on council taxpayers and we will be making that message very clear to the government and working with them to find the right solution for the county."