A MEETING held to discuss the future of a proposed £1billion super incinerator indicated it could be put on the scrap-heap.
Representatives from Warwickshire County Council, Coventry City Council and Solihull Borough Council met this week to discuss the viability of a bigger incinerator in Coventry.
It would burn waste coming in from all three areas.
But revamping the ageing burner instead of signing up for a 25-year PFI contract seems to be gaining support.
Councillor John Whitehouse, (Lib Dem, Kenilworth Abbey), was a Warwickshire represen-tative at the meeting on Monday.
He said: “The meeting was rather inconclusive as two out of the three Coventry reps didn’t turn up.
“Everyone was quite keen to hear from them because of the amount of press coverage they have got regarding their stance on the plan.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty about the future of this project. We don’t know if the new
government will scrap PFI credits that have not yet reached an advanced stage.
“I wanted to ask Coventry councillors about their position.
“Solihull seem to be in favour of looking at a refurbishment, which means Warwickshire would have to follow.
“As we know as recently as March we’ve called for Warwickshire council not to back the idea, but so far they have said they would.”
As the Times has previously reported, the new Labour administration in Coventry has said it would prefer to revamp the current incinerator rather than having a new one.
A public “engagement” to give people a chance to give their views on a proposed incinerator, which would be located in Whitley, Coventry, has been postponed.
The consultation was due to start this month, but chiefs behind Project Transform said that they need more time to brief members since the election.
Lucy Rumble, of Project Transform, said: “Rather than a consultation, we prefer to call it an engagement where people will be given the chance to look at the outline planning permission case for the incinerator in Whitley.
“The plan was to hold a number of drop-in sessions, like an exhibition, that would invite people’s comments.
“But we decided we should delay this so we can get all members up to speed.
“The engagement should start by the summer holidays though.”
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