Ask your Councillors about their public silence on re-determination of waste incinerator Environmental Permit

This is the email I’ve just sent my Calderdale Councillors and the Cabinet member for Climate Change. You’re welcome to reuse it if you like.

Dear Calder Ward Councillors and Cllr Scott Patient,

I am concerned at how little respect Calderdale Council has shown for the public, in ignoring the promise from the Council’s Cabinet that they would be open and transparent about the re-determination of the Environmental Permit application for operation of the Small Waste Incineration Plant at Calder Valley Skip Hire’s site in Ryburn Valley, following the successful judicial review that quashed the grant of the original Environmental Permit.

As a result of a local resident’s Environmental Information Regulations request, it has come to light that – far from being open and transparent – Calderdale Council has secretively appealled to the Secretary of State to,

“direct the Council to grant an environmental permit to the Appellant [Calder Valley Skip Hire] for the operation of the Small Waste Incineration Plant.”

Despite the huge and entirely legitimate public interest in this matter, the Council has failed to notify members of the public about Calder Valley Skip HIre’s appeal in May 2022. As you know, this appeal challenges the September 2021 High Court ruling that quashed the Small Waste Incineration Plant (SWIP) Environmental Permit issued to Calder Valley Skip Hire by Calderdale Council in February 2021.

Equally, the Council has not informed the public of its own response to the appeal, which the Benbow Group has circulated:

“The conclusion reached by the Council in determining to granting the permit in February 2021 was correct. No further evidence has been provided to undermine the assessment made.
“The Council has concluded that there are no legitimate grounds or basis to resist the grant of a permit subject to appropriate conditions.
“In those circumstances, the Council invites the Secretary of State to allow the appeal and direct the Council to grant an environmental permit to the Appellant for the operation of the SWIP and associated plant at the Appeal Site subject to necessary and appropriate conditions.”

The Benbow Group are now seeking further information to ensure the public can exercise our legal right to respond to the appeal.

But really Calderdale Council should have already made this information publicly available, as soon as it found out about Calder Valley Skip HIre’s appeal.

I am particularly concerned at the public silence of Cllrs Courtney, Fenton Glynn and Patient, because as Cabinet members with responsibility for, respectively, public health, adult health and wellbeing, and climate change, you are surely responsible for making sure Calderdale Council’s policies and programmes in these areas are implemented.

All Calderdale Council’s policies for public health, adult health and wellbeing and climate change run directly counter to the operation of a waste incinerator in Ryburn Valley. So why have you, personally, not insisted that Calderdale Council honoured the Cabinet’s promise that they would be open and transparent about the re-determination of the Environmental Permit application? Including informing the public how we can exercise our legal right to respond to the appeal?

Regards,

Jenny Shepherd
Calder Ward resident.