More Norfolk rubbish to be incinerated over the border

Norfolk County Council is responsible for dealing with the 210,000 tonnes of residual waste produced in the county each year.

But it sends its waste to be incinerated in Suffolk and Bedfordshire because of a long-running and costly saga from more than a decade ago.

Around 20,000 tonnes of waste is sent to be burned at the Great Blakenham incinerator, as part of an agreement with Suffolk County Council.

And the council has just agreed a £5m contract covering the next two years, which will double the amount of waste taken to that plant to be burned, with a further option to extend it for another three years for an extra £7.5m.

Pat Gould, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for countryside, coast and culture (Image: Norfolk County Council)

Pat Gould, the Reform-controlled council's cabinet member for countryside, coast and culture, used his delegated powers to agree to increase the tonnage to 40,000 tonnes a year.

Officials at County Hall said: "The proposal would secure services that would continue to divert approximately 40,000 tonnes a year of leftover rubbish from landfill.

"Instead the waste would be used as a fuel and burnt to generate electricity and metals, and aggregate would be recovered for recycling.

"The proposal to continue the arrangement would secure a price for the treatment of waste that carries less exposure to inflation risk than would be expected through a commercial contract and is considered value for money."

The ban on allowing incinerators within Norfolk has been in place since 2014.

It followed a decision to scrap plans for an incinerator County Hall was planning to build at Saddlebow, near King's Lynn.

The plan, put forward when the Conservatives controlled the council, was ditched by the so-called rainbow alliance of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP.

Pulling the plug left the council having to pay more than £30m in compensation to Cory Wheelabrator, the company which would have built it and run it.

Opposition councillors recently questioned whether the Reform administration could consider reviving plans for a Norfolk incinerator.

Norfolk County Council leader David Bick (Image: Matt Senior)

At last week's meeting of the cabinet, council leader David Bick said: "There are currently no plans to develop an incinerator in Norfolk, and no such proposal is being pursued by the council."

"Any future decisions relating to waste treatment infrastructure would be subject to the council's established decision-making processes and the policy framework in place at the time."