Call for clarity on incinerator

GLOUCESTERSHIRE’S giant Javelin Park incinerator by Junction 12 of the M5 is unmissable on the landscape.

A Value for Money audit report, started four years ago after a complaint by Community R4C, has been delayed yet again. It is expected this month.

The audit should reveal whether the 2016 incinerator contract between Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) and Urbaser Balfour Beatty broke the law.

Details were kept by a small group in the council for years, until legal action forced them to disclose that costs had increased by £163m compared to the original 2013 contract, up 36 per cent in just three years. There was no competitive tender.

Throughout the report process, taxpayers, county councillors and even its own scrutiny committees have been kept in the dark.

Councillor Nigel Robbins, OBE, preelection chair of the county council’s audit & governance committee, publicly criticised the delay and the council administration’s lack of transparency.

“Why would GCC wish to prevent publication of this long-awaited report? The A&G committee is supremely important in overseeing the probity, integrity and health of GCC.

“It’s almost like the conscience of the organisation.

“It should be able to leave no stone unturned ...”

Community R4C director Tom Jarman is equally outraged: “Citizens have again been denied the opportunity to hold the incumbent administration to account.”

Community R4C wants the new county council and audit committee to revise the contract to ensure fair pricing and deliver pre-treatment of waste, removing reusable resources. See https://communityr4c.com/