Veolia and Hertfordshire County Council end major waste contract
Global resource management company Veolia and Hertfordshire County Council have ended their £1 billion (€892.6 million) waste management contract in the UK.
The decision follows the refusal of an application to build a 320,000 tonnes per year energy from waste plant. Hertfordshire County Council has vowed to go back to the market to find an outlet for the 250,000 tonnes of waste the county produces. The council said this leaves them with a ‘substantial problem’, as they struggle to find options to deal with residual waste.
Then housing and communities secretary James Brokenshire turned down the application for the facility in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, as he believed it would have ‘significant adverse landscape and visual impacts’, LetsRecycle reported.
Both parties have decided not to challenge the decision and have since decided to call time on their agreement. Veolia’s plans for the plant had been pending for several years. Terry Hone, cabinet member for waste management at Hertfordshire County Council, said: “This leaves us with a substantial problem as we’re running out of options for dealing with the residual waste Hertfordshire currently produces, and with 100,000 new homes expected in the country in the next 15 years we urgently need more waste treatment capacity.
“In the short term we will have to continue transporting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste to other parts of the country for treatment, which is expensive and bad for the environment.”
A spokesperson for Veolia added: “We will not be challenging the previous Secretary of State’s decision to refuse planning permission for the Rye House Energy Recovery Facility in Hertfordshire, despite the Independent Inspector’s recommendation to approve this project.”
The decision follows the refusal of an application to build a 320,000 tonnes per year energy from waste plant. Hertfordshire County Council has vowed to go back to the market to find an outlet for the 250,000 tonnes of waste the county produces. The council said this leaves them with a ‘substantial problem’, as they struggle to find options to deal with residual waste.
Then housing and communities secretary James Brokenshire turned down the application for the facility in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, as he believed it would have ‘significant adverse landscape and visual impacts’, LetsRecycle reported.
Both parties have decided not to challenge the decision and have since decided to call time on their agreement. Veolia’s plans for the plant had been pending for several years. Terry Hone, cabinet member for waste management at Hertfordshire County Council, said: “This leaves us with a substantial problem as we’re running out of options for dealing with the residual waste Hertfordshire currently produces, and with 100,000 new homes expected in the country in the next 15 years we urgently need more waste treatment capacity.
“In the short term we will have to continue transporting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste to other parts of the country for treatment, which is expensive and bad for the environment.”
A spokesperson for Veolia added: “We will not be challenging the previous Secretary of State’s decision to refuse planning permission for the Rye House Energy Recovery Facility in Hertfordshire, despite the Independent Inspector’s recommendation to approve this project.”
