Gloucestershire incinerator delay bill £400,000 a month

Monthly landfill costs of £400,000 and a £6m bill for delays to a planned incinerator are being defended after criticism by those against the plans.

The controversial plant is due to be operational by 2019 but in the meantime the on-going costs of dealing with household waste have been revealed.

Campaigners and local politicians want the plant to be replaced with cheaper ways to process household waste.

The council has defended the multi million-pound costs as as "normal".

Deputy leader of the council, Conservative, Ray Theodoulou, said the council said been "completely open about the extra cost caused by the planning delay" and why the additional money was required.

He added: "This underlines exactly why we need this project - to deliver the savings and stop the unsustainable cost of landfill.

"This is totally normal for this type of project given the delay involved."

In 2012, a contract to build the large-scale incinerator was awarded to Balfour Beatty, before planning consent had been awarded.

But the following year, while the contract was being signed, the council's own planning committee turned down the application.

This resulted in an appeal where the Secretary of State finally approved the plans.

Liberal Democrat shadow spokesman on finance, Paul Hodgkinson, said: "It was a flawed contract.

"It was put in place and signed before planning permission was given and now we're living with the consequences.

"The alternative is that we cancel the contract - I would be seriously looking at that prospect."

He added that although the Conservative council leader said it would cost up to £100m to cancel the deal, he had not seen any "robust figures" to support that claim.

Mr Theodoulou said: "The contract to dispose of Gloucestershire's waste that can't be recycled was signed in 2012, after a four year, transparent public procurement process, that invited bids from any company, for any technology.

"Breaking the contract now, with planning permission granted, would cost taxpayers as much as £100m.

"That cost would come from losing the multi-million pound savings that new incinerator will provide and the income from the clean energy it would generate, as well as the costs of running a new procurement process and breaking the current contract."