COUNTY COUNCIL COMMITTEE BACKS WASTE INCINERATOR

12.46.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Jun 2008

Liberal Democrats challenge to the county council's plan to build a huge waste incinerator was stopped when Conservative councillors refused to carry out a thorough review of the project.

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee met to hear a Liberal Democrat demand for a post implementation review of the incinerator plan. Liberal Democrats on the county council are concerned about the council's bid to government for PFI funding for a solution to deal with residual waste. The Conservative led council's preferred option is a massive waste incinerator at Javelin Park, to the south of Gloucester.

Conservative members on the committee used their votes to turn down opposition councillors call for a detailed review of the cabinet decision. The committee voted 6 votes to 4 to reject the call for a post implementation review.

No cabinet member was present at the committee to defend the administration's position.

Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr. Jeremy Hilton said: "I am amazed that the committee has whitewashed the cabinet's decision to proceed with plans to build a huge waste incinerator in the county. The Tories are breaking their manifesto pledge. A waste incinerator at Javelin Park will blow emissions all over Gloucester and Cheltenham. The most densely populated part of the county. It will burn reusable waste to feed its appetite. Alternative solutions are being sidelined as the Conservatives continue to progress a project to build an enormous waste incinerator."

"The debate at committee was a farce," said Councillor John Cordwell, Liberal Democrat on the Overview and Scrutiny Management committee. "The chairman hurried through the agenda in forty minutes. No cabinet member could be bothered to turn up so questions went unanswered. Now we have a project submitted to Government, which promotes the construction of a large waste incinerator. There are other options to a waste incinerator, which should have been put to the Government as the council's preferred option. It is deplorable that opposition councillors were denied a proper opportunity to scrutinise the cabinet decision."