BIRMINGHAM: Controversial waste burner decision called in

Scrutiny committee reveals 'secret, off the books meeting' which led to Tyseley incinerator contract extension

Kate Knowles - Local Democracy Reporter | Friday 19th May 2023 7:45am

Note to editors: A previous version had two minor typos in pars 10 and 16 which have been corrected.

The decision to extend a contract for a controversial waste burner was made in a “quiet, off the books meeting” without the opportunity for scrutiny, Birmingham councillors today claimed.

At a tense meeting of the city council’s sustainability and transport overview and scrutiny committee this morning, chiefs reconsidered the decision to extend the contract for the operation of the Tyseley incinerator.

The city’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the burner has been operated by waste management company Veolia since 1994.

Due to expire in January 2019, the contract was extended in December 2018 until January 2024, and again last month for a further ten years, prompting outcry from opposition parties and even from within Labour.

Greens leader Coun Julien Pritchard (Druids Heath and Moneyhull) and Coun Rob Grant (Kings Norton) triggered the meeting, citing a conflict with the council’s 2019 ‘climate emergency’ declaration, which set the target for the council to become net zero carbon by 2030 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Deputy leaders Ewan Mackey (Con, Sutton Roughley) and Roger Harmer (Lib Dem, Acocks Green) also requested a call in, citing further inconsistencies with the council’s clean air policies and a lack of opportunity for scrutiny.

Coun Colin Green (Lib Dem, Sheldon) condemned the apparent attempt by cabinet to push through the decision without review by the committee.

He said: “We were emailed an hour before the scrutiny meeting while we were travelling in that there were papers to be read elsewhere, not in our committee, and we were to have a quiet, off-the-books meeting afterwards.

“It seems to me that the cabinet tried to bounce this committee through this decision.”

But city environment boss Coun Majid Mahmood (Lab, Bromford and Hodge Hill) was adamant that sharing the cabinet report concerning the award of a contract to a successful bidder would have been a breach of procurement confidentiality.

“That’s one of the reasons why we weren’t able to bring the report to scrutiny before the decision and that’s one of the reaons why it came a very late stage to yourselves as a committee,” he said.

“We are a waste disposal authority and we do have a statutory duty to dispose of waste.”

He said that would always be “at odds” with climate policies and the only way to balance the competing interests was to treat and dispose of waste “outside the Birmingham boundary”.

He added: “This contract is very cost-effective for the city, that’s why we are here.

“And the climate emergency does say we need a just transition so we have to ensure there is not any inequalities to communities so that poorer people don’t have to pay for that.”

After a gruelling round of questions for Coun Mahmood and a near two-hour discussion, committee members convened in private and unanimously agreed to call in the decision, citing eight out of 10 possible grounds.

The reasons included the decision being inconsistent with existing policy and previous recommendations made by the committee; that relevant stakeholders had not been consulted; that it had generated controversy; that insufficient information was provided in the report; and it had given rise to governence and propriety issues.

Birmingham’s Tory, Lib Dem and Green parties released a joint statement following the decision.

Coun Pritchard said: “They’ve not put together any kind of waste action plan.

“There’s no strategy behind this decision.

Coun Harmer said: “BCC is currently recycling about 22.7 per cent of waste which is broadly the same as it was recycling four years ago.

“The best councils in the country are recycling over 60 per cent of their waste.

“This council can and must do better.

“It's about reducing the amount of waste first, and then secondly, recycling it and using the incinerator as our last resort.

“That’s what we’re failing to do at the moment.”

Coun Mackey said: “We'll be pointing out, when this does come back to cabinet, that in 2019, cabinet promised this would never happen again.

“Here we are in 2023 having to hold the cabinet to account for making exactly the same decisions.

“That is what is wrong with this administration.

“They don’t learn, they keep making the same mistakes over and over again.”

It was the second cabinet decision called-in this week with the Dawberry Fields Neighbourhood Park council housing scheme withdrawn yesterday.

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