Jacobstow Forum

To all Cornwall Councillors

Incinerator update……… Monday 30th July Extraordinary Cabinet Agenda Item 8

Please spend a small amount of time reading these important points and for more information see the attached short documents, which are:-

· Problems with the recent legal opinion- penned with no real knowledge of the work undertaken to prepare the presentation

· Motion before Plymouth City on Monday to seek legal advice on terminating their waste contract

We ask you to spend a small amount of money to review the Forum proposition so that you can put your mind at rest that you are doing all you can to save a large amount of money for Cornwall.

Key points for the decision

The Waste Panel review resolution, passed unanimously, would cost little to implement and could lead to savings of over £90 million over ten years.

The incinerator contract is at a breakpoint for the next few months, allowing termination if the Revised Project Plan does not satisfy the Council.

The Officers’ report does not state that the CWF approach would not work, it focuses on their perceptions of risk and delay to ensure that you decide against this review on how to save millions of pounds at a time of financial stringency.

Risks

The Incinerator option has significant risks

· The incinerator will become inoperable four years after building, in 2020 under the European Parliament Resolution, Resource Efficient Europe banning recyclables from incineration

· Unsatisfactory Planning Permission- from not building ash plant, requires termination of contract

· May not obtain planning elsewhere for needed ash handling plant

· Litigation from ignoring a serious option to save £10m pa by recycling

· Reduced feedstock through reduced MSW and reduced availability of commercial and industrial waste as local merchant facilities are built- starting this year: much higher costs to Council to operate

Recycling option risks

· Planning risks low as meets planning policy, sites already in waste use

· Landowner risk low as private landowners keen to engage

· Risk of market pricing for recyclables low- present work used lower than market pricing for materials sales

· Risk that the investigation of the recycling option reduces the cost of the RPP

· Low risk of investigation of this option sparking litigation as CWF not a potential supplier

Delay

Officers’ report is not believable in this regard.

Neither a new planning policy nor a waste strategy is required – which is their main claimed delay: check with your Planners

· Merchant facilities are going through planning and several have planning under present policies

· Existing CWLP policies provide for the facilities proposed under the recycling option, no new policies need to be developed

· High recycling is in line with emerging Core Strategy and the consultation responses to it.

· Council has managed the whole incinerator process without a Waste Strategy and has been promising to develop one for over ten years, so disingenuous to demand one now.

· Small sites take less time through planning – existing recent relevant permissions took six months – CWF allowed a year in their programme – also programme suggested is phased over three years.

PFI contract termination

· PFI contract is at a break point now and for the next few months

· Council has to take a positive action to continue the contract

· If RPP not acceptable, it is appropriate for Council to terminate contract under Schedule 6 clause 3.18

· Unsatisfactory Planning Permission requires termination– Schedule 6 Clause 3.8(c) – Sita proposes not to build the required ash handling plant meaning the planning conditions will not be met, and they do not have planning elsewhere for an ash plant.

We trust that you will consider all these points and vote for a small step that will potentially save Cornwall a large amount of money.

Ken Rickard,

Chair of Cornwall Waste Forum St.Dennis Branch