WHEREVER you stand on the waste incinerator being built next to the M5, there is one thing we surely can agree on: taxpayers should be told exactly how their money is spent.

It doesn’t matter if you think our county council has built a pollutant-spewing monstrosity or a realistic solution to ever-growing landfill, what is fact is that Shire Hall has done so in the public’s name and for the public’s use using public cash.

Why, then, did it take a Freedom of Information request, then a refusal, then a legal order, then a now dropped appeal just to reveal that Javelin Park is more expensive than expected?

Commercial sensitivity, the council previously argued - but, with something that divides people so fiercely, surely that’s trumped by the need for transparency?

An inquiry that delivers this, as called for this week by campaigners, is something the SNJ supports.

But, equally, it should not be a backdoor way of shutting down the incinerator.

That is another debate - and indeed one the public should have all the facts for.