Gloucestershire environmental group C4RC lose legal battle over Javelin Park waste incinerator
Their bid to appeal a decision from the High Court was thrown out by the Court of Appeal
A Gloucestershire environmental group's legal battle against Gloucestershire County Council over the contract for the £600 million waste incinerator has been turned down.
The Court of Appeal has decided to throw out Community R4C’s (CR4C) bid to appeal against a High Court judge’s decision not to allow a full trial take place over claims about the Javelin Park contract.
The group claimed the new contract for the facility in Gloucester, which is near junction 12 on the M5, was unlawfull awarded to its operator Urbaser Balfour Beatty (UBB) four years ago.
The county council has always denied this and said it ran a competitive process within the law.
The group say they would have submitted an offer to run a "much cheaper" waste processing plant but the High Court rules C4RC was not qualified to bid for the contract.
On Thursday, (November 19), the Court of Appeal said the “evidence was overwhelming” that CR4C would not have been able to bid for the contract to manage the county’s waste.
C4RC has been approached for comment.
Councillor Nigel Moor, Cabinet Member for the Environment, commented: “I’m really pleased the Court of Appeal has issued such a robust reasoning in its dismissal of this case.
“The comments reflect the position the council has held all along in relation to this fanciful case.
”Javelin Park disposes of the waste Gloucestershire can’t recycle cleanly and safely, whilst cutting our carbon emissions significantly.
“Taxpayers have been put to significant cost by this challenge – and we will take steps to recover as much of that as possible.”
The authority said it has been awarded its costs of defending the High Court claim and is now in the process of recovering them from CR4C.
The county council revealed in December 2018 the project’s cost had risen from £500m to £633m.
The authority signed a contract with UBB for the scheme in 2013.
In 2018 it was told it must reveal some parts of a previously redacted report, released under Freedom of Information rules, which the authority had said was “commercially sensitive”.
It released the details on December 21, revealing it will cost £112 per tonne to burn the waste, which it said represented “value for money”.
When the plans were first proposed, the council said the incinerator would save local taxpayers £100m over 25 years and power 25,000 homes.