A judge at the High Court in London has rejected the Residents Against Waste Site's (RAWS) legal challenge to prevent the proposed Farington Waste Technology Park from going ahead.
Mr Justice Irwin said he was not prepared to quash Lancashire County Council's (LCC) planning decision. Although LCC had failed to include lorry traffic routing in the original planning permission the council has now undertaken to "create such an obligation".
The judge has yet to give the full reasons for the verdict but Steve Browne, LCC's director of waste and material resources management, said he was "very pleased" at the outcome but that the litigation had caused substantial delay to the project which was originally due to start in June.
The council's representative, top QC David Elvin, said that the project was a vital part of LCC's waste management strategy and its planning permission could not be faulted, despite claims by RAWS' barrister David Wolfe who had argued that the council had mis-applied strict European anti-pollution regulations.
Tim Carter, company secretary for RAWS, said they were deeply disappointed and that it was a "dark day for Lancashire". He said, "The decision to allow this waste plant to go ahead will be a body-blow for the residents of South Ribble and all of Lancashire...It brings with it unknown health risks, potential traffic chaos, environmental damage and malodorous emmissions." He also claimed that it spelled financial disaster for local residents whose properties he said had already been heavily devalued due to the proposals. The group are considering taking the case to the Court of Appeal.
South Ribble Labour Group Leader Matthew Tomlinson told the Leyland Guardian "Thank goodness the council never put the money towards a doomed enterprise. We've always said we understand the reasons why residents protested, but we felt they've gone about it the wrong way. If they thought the planning process was flawed, going to the local ombudsman wouldn't have cost a penny."
A commenter on the Lancashire Evening Post website was more robust in summing up the more unsavoury political aspects of the story over the last few months:
Not only did South Ribble Tories win an election promising an untruth about financially supporting Leyland residents with their campaign against the waste plant, they did so on the back of consistent legal advice telling them that the bribe was flawed. Then, having succeeded in conning the electorate they managed to find a mysterious wealthy backer - who they still refuse to name - in order to get themselves out of a mess of their own making. Now we are told by the High Court no less that the judicial review will not be allowed anyway as there is no grounds for one. Either Councillor Mrs Smith and her Tory members stood on a platform of deceit at the last local elections or they were frighteningly misguided in promising South Ribble tax payers money for an ill-conceived and costly appeal thereby frivolously wasting our finite council funds - what a shambolic way to begin a new administration.
The waste plant is to be built in a partnership which includes Lancashire County Council, Australian company Global Renewables Ltd, Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. The waste extraction and treatement method to be used at the plant is of the kind recommended by Greenpeace as an alternative to incineration in their publication 'Cool Waste Management: A state of the Art Alternative to Incineration for Residual Municipal Waste'. I am resisting the temptation to make a joke about a rubbish report ...but you can download the full report here
Also visit Global Renewables website for more information on their technology and the plant at Eastern Creek, Sydney, Australia (pictured below)
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