Oxfordshire County Council has welcomed the Court of Appeal's decision to refuse campaign group Ardley Against Incinerator (AAI) the right to challenge planning permission for a new facility to burn Oxfordshire's waste.
The challenge was dismissed in the hearing on November 10 by a Court of Appeal judge, enabling the construction of the plant to go ahead after years of wrangling. The Energy-from-Waste (EfW) incinerator at Ardley will treat 95 per cent of Oxfordshire's non-recyclable household waste, diverting it away from landfill, while generating enough electricity to supply more than 38,000 households.
The county council said that diverting the rubbish from landfill would save it huge amounts in Government taxes over the 25-year life of the facility. Planning permission for the plant was recommended for approval by a Government's planning inspector and was approved by the Secretary of State in February 2011, after it was originally refused by county councillors.
The authority has signed a deal with site owner and waste management company Viridor to develop the facility, and last week's decision gives the green light for construction to begin. Councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet member for growth and infrastructure, said: "It's excellent news that this situation is now resolved.
We have experienced an eight month delay which has resulted in significant costs to the council. "We now anticipate that Viridor will progress swiftly with construction of the facility at Ardley, making the environmental and financial benefits it will bring to Oxfordshire a reality."
Speaking on behalf of the company, Viridor head of projects Robert Ryan said: “We were confident that our proposal for Oxfordshire was carefully and thoroughly developed and today’s decision reaffirms that. We can now start preparing for construction works to start so we can deliver a state of the art facility for Oxfordshire in 2014, which will complement its already successful waste prevention, reuse and recycling programmes.”
Members of the campaign group AAI argued the plant was a hazard to local residents health and would be a blight on those living nearby. The group said earlier this year it would be asking Cherwell District Council to closely monitor air quality at the site in the future, particularly in communities where levels were already close to EU limits.
This month's court defeat was the third for the group this year. AAI applied to the High Court to have the Secretary of State's decision overturned, but the application was refused in July and permission to appeal was also refused in September 2011.
County council leader Cllr Keith Mitchell criticised the AAI in May for wasting taxpayers' money, and last week said: "I strongly regret the amount of time and local taxpayers' money which has been wasted by the actions of the campaign group, Ardley Against Incinerator, on what appears to have been a deliberate policy of delay despite clear indications that their appeal was always doomed to failure."
AAI spokesman Jon O'Neill was not available for comment as the Journal went to press, but earlier this year denied his group was a drain on taxpayers' cash. “If we lose this could cost us tens of thousands of pounds of our own money, not taxpayers money – we’ve stuck our hands in our own pockets because we care, we’re not sat in an ivory tower spending taxpayers’ money badly," he said in May.
