East Sussex councils clash over disposal deal

21 January 2008

A row has broken out in East Sussex over whether a 25-year waste contract favours incineration over recycling.

Lewes District Council claims the Veolia contract with East Sussex and Brighton & Hove councils encourages the contractor to send waste to the planned energy-from-waste plant in Newhaven. But East Sussex County Council strongly disputes ‘the inaccurate claims’, saying the contract is, in fact, constructed to incentivise Veolia to maximise recycling.

The district council claimed that newly-released information showed the county council had to pay Veolia a supplement of £26.16 per tonne for waste which was incinerated, compared with £13.60 for waste which was recycled. East Sussex had previously refused to disclose financial details of the contract, until the information commissioner’s officer ruled that the council should make it public, according to Lewes.

Cllr Ann De Vecchi, leader of Lewes, said: ‘It is clear why the county council wanted to keep this contract information secret for almost five years.

‘It is outrageous that it gives the impression it is keen for everyone to recycle but its action in support of the proposed incinerator including the contract deal shows this is not the case.’ But East Sussex said in a statement: ‘Under cross-examination at a public inquiry on Thursday, Lewes District Council accepted that its information about the financial implications of recycling rates payable under the waste disposal contract with Veolia was wrong.’

It added that the overall income per tonne Veolia could make through recycling was likely to be as much as through incineration, if not greater. ‘This is because Veolia receives income from the buyer of those recyclable materials, as well as a rate per tonne from the county council.’ A spokesperson for Veolia Environmental Services agreed that Cllr De Vecchi’s comments were misleading.

‘First, she simply compares the base line payments for individual elements of the service. And second, sales of paper recyclates can yield as much as £30-35 per tonnes, depending on quality.’

But the district council stood by its overall position, saying: ‘Under cross-examination, our witness did say an element was missing from his calculation but confirmed this did not affect our overall position that the contract makes clear that incineration, without any requirement for use of any energy recovered, is more profitable to the contractor than recycling.’

Planning permission was granted in November for the 210,000t energy-from-waste plant at North Quay, Newhaven.

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East Sussex councils clash over disposal deal

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