HIGH COURT CHALLENGE TO ESSEX COUNTY
COUNCIL –
KEY PRINCIPLES CONCEDED BY COUNTY
YESTERDAY
Lawyers for the three individuals challenging
the Essex & Southend Waste Plan are 'quietly confident' that the challenge
will be upheld. Key principles were
established and Geoffrey Gardner, witness for the county council, conceded that
he had given incorrect information to county councillors at the crucial Select
Committee meeting last July. Judgment
will be given in the High Court, Wednesday, from 10.30am.
Last July the decision was made by the new
Conservative administration to adopt the controversial Waste Plan, which
permits incineration at six identified sites 'or at other locations'. This was in spite of previous vociferous
cross-party opposition to incinerators in Essex and a strong pledge against
incineration from the Conservatives during the election. It was claimed it was unlawful to exclude
incineration.
Legal requirement for incineration: Yesterday William Upton, barrister for the
three claimants, Neville Jessop, Graham Pooley and Paula Watson (nee Whitney),
established that there is no legal requirement to permit incinerators in county
waste plans, as repeatedly stated by county councillors. This was confirmed by the barrister for the
county council and their witness, Gardner, denied giving councillors such
misinformation. There is no Government
requirement for incineration.
'Referendum' invalid in planning
terms: Upton also established that a
referendum, such as proposed by Lord Hanningfield when the new Conservative
administration agreed to adopt the Waste Plan, would have no validity in
planning terms and was meaningless.
Incorrect information: Geoffrey Gardner conceded he had given
misinformation to councillors, two-thirds of whom were new, at the Select
Committee which had been charged with scrutinising the Cabinet's decision to recommend
adoption of the Waste Plan with the controversial incineration policy W7G. He maintained this would not have affected
their decision.
The incorrect information included:
That 'current' recycling levels were
10%-15%. In fact the Essex current
2000/2001 recycling average was 22%, with
lowest recycling 16% (Braintree and Chelmsford) and the highest 30%
(Brentwood). Even the previous year,
1999/2000, was an average 18%, from 13%-24%.
That we were 'running out of
landfill': In fact it was established
at the 1999 public inquiry that 15 years' of landfill capacity had been
allocated, 5 more than should be allocated in advance. There is 50 years' potential landfill
available at Stanway. As recycling and
composting improves the need for landfill is diminishing and operators are
asking for extensions in order to fill holes!
All types of waste landfilled in Essex from all sources have reduced by
25% since 1997 (Environment Agency data).
Scaremongering: The county council's skeleton argument lodged at the eleventh
hour on Friday included the claim that if the challenge is won it would be a
'catastrophic outcome' for the county and that '6 years of work' and
'substantial sums of Council tax payers money would have been wasted'. In fact if the Consortium's proposed amendments
are adopted agreement could be reached within about a month between the
lawyers.
The reason the plan is so inconsistent and
the challenge had to be brought is that it has been railroaded through since
1999 when the deposit draft should have been properly reworded to reflect the
cross-party commitment for no incinerators in Essex.
Curiouser and curiouser: In Gardner's first response to the challenge
(10/12/01) he stated that Essex County and Southend Councils: "made a conscious decision having regard
to all the considerations raised in objections at the Public Local Inquiry and
in the Inspector's report not to have an automatic presumption against
incineration".
Friday's statement 7.4 (i) for the county
council says: "there is no reason
to believe that the Councils would perform a volte face and substitute the
carefully reasoned recommendations of the Inspector for a blanket 'no
incineration' policy." This belies
Lord Hanningfield's statement on BBC Essex on 11th January this year: "I agree totally with the
campaigners. We don't want
incineration. We're absolutely against
it .."
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator for Essex
Friends of the Earth says:
"It is a pity we have had to go to these
lengths to have to challenge the decision to adopt the Waste Plan against the
'no incineration' pledges of the Conservative group. We have now proved there is no legal requirement to include
incineration. If we win tomorrow the
Plan can be reworded to exclude incineration.
Why are the county officers fighting this?"
ENDS
