Council paid millions to recycling company
Contract with Powerday despite legal action
A WEST Drayton resident has criticised Hillingdon Council after it emerged the authority has paid more than £7m to a recycling company it has issued an enforcement order against.
The council has had a contract with the firm Powerday to run the civic amenity site in Tavistock Road since 2010 and has paid millions of pounds to the company.
But Powerday’s recycling site in West Drayton had not been given planning approval by the council and an enforcement notice was issued to stop the operation being run 24 hours a day.
A planning application made by the firm to build a new recycling centre on the site was rejected by Hillingdon Council in June.
Swan Road resident Vladimir Matveev said: “How is it possible that the council had awarded a multi-million pound contract to a company that had no planning permission to take the waste to the site?”
Powerday has been operating in West Drayton for more than six years without planning permission.
“Despite receiving thousands of complaints from residents, the council all this time has been paying millions of pounds to Powerday for bringing their waste to West Drayton.”
Figures revealed in a Freedom of Information request submitted by Mr Matveev showed the total amounts being paid from the council to Powerday.
The cost paid from the council to the company in contract increased by more than five times between 2013 and 2015, reaching a peak of £2.5m.
In 2016 the total amount paid by the council is £1.5m.
Hillingdon Council earlier this year threw out a controversial planning application from Powerday to build a new recovery and recycling building, storage bays and associated parking on the Tavistock Road site.
The application was unanimously refused because of the development’s impact on roads and air quality.
Powerday has now applied to the government’s Environment Agency for a licence to allow it to carry out all the activity set out in the planning application.
The firm was also caught up in a major controversy earlier this year when it was fined £1.2m by the Environment Agency for depositing and storing 17,000 tonnes of waste illegally in Willesden and Oxfordshire.
Councillor for the West Drayton ward, Jan Sweeting, said: “This is of course very concerning to local residents.
“Once again it would seem that Powerday are exerting all of its significant financial clout to ensure that the Coal Yard site in Yiewsley will become a waste site of significant size.
“We know from experience its going to cause even more problems if the extended licence is granted.”
Responding to the news that the council had a contract worth millions of pounds with Powerday, Cllr Sweeting added: “It seems a funny old world that a council can be giving a contract and at the same time looking to take out enforcement action against the company.”
Members of the public can give their opinions on Powerday’s application until September 15 via the Environment Agency by emailing pscpubl i c response@ environment- agency. gov. uk and using the application number EPR/ LB3530RA/V002.
Hillingdon Council and Powerday have not responded to requests for a comment at the time of going to press.