Rubbish from across Essex may come to Basildon (From Basildon Recorder)

Rubbish from across Essex may come to Basildon

3:00pm Monday 3rd August 2009

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HOUSEHOLD rubbish from across the county looks set to be dumped in Basildon after the plan to create two huge waste plants in Essex fell apart.

For years county hall promised to have two waste sites, one at Stanway or Rivenhall, in north Essex, and another at Courtauld Road, Basildon, for south Essex.

However, a blunder has led to the Government rejecting a bid for £175million to build the two plants.

In order to get the cash, the Government said the county council needed full control of the sites.

It has with Courtauld Road, but not in the case of the other two, which are owned by waste companies. So the northern plan has been shelved.

The county council has made a last minute bid for £100million to develop an anaerobic digestor at Courtauld Road to turn 351,000 tonnes of black sack waste a year into a type of compost that can be turned into fuel.

Malcolm Buckley, Basildon Council cabinet member for environment, said under the new bid the plant would actually handle less waste because of improved recycling rates across Essex.

However, the change appears to show the county council’s waste strategy in a state of disarray, with district council chiefs not fully aware of what’s happening.

Mr Buckley admitted he has yet to read the business case and did not know what detail, if any, it contained about recycling. It is also not clear how County Hall plans to boost recycling levels.

He said: “I have been assured by Lord Hanningfield and cabinet member for waste, Tracey Chapman, there will be no recycling at Courtauld Road.”

He said he had not read it because it was only an outline bid and the county council had been forced to get it in because the Government had brought in an autumn deadline.

A tender has already gone out for separate schemes to sort garden and food waste, while recycling is expected to be dealt with more locally.

In a deal Mr Buckley has been discussing with County Hall, Basildon Council refuse trucks, now based at the Barleylands depot, may also move to Courtauld Road.

Nicola Beech, assistant director of operations at the county council, said they were keen to go-ahead with Courtauld Road because they had guaranteed planning permission and access to the site.

She said: “The Government will only want to sponsor projects which are definitely deliverable. We just wanted a case we could deliver and prove we could do this.

“The new outline business case reflects that.

“It’s a much smaller and simplified case in that money is being sought for one facility. It’s not that we have failed or anything drastic has happened, it’s just that we’ve had to be flexible.”

Many campaigners vehemently opposed the construction of the plant in south Essex, claiming it was effectively an incinerator.

More than 5,000 readers signed up to the Echo’s Don’t Dump On Basildon campaign in 2007.

The new outline business case was approved by Essex County Council’s cabinet last month.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs is going through an internal process of evaluating the case and a decision is expected in September.

If successful, it will be passed to the Treasury’s policy review group, which holds the Government’s pursestrings. It will make its ruling in October. If the case gets the thumbs up, work on tenders can start straight away.

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