Ukip’s North Yorkshire County Councillors have said the authority must not waste any more public money on an ill-fated waste incinerator scheme near Knaresborough.
The call from Couns David Simister (Harrogate Bilton & Nidd Gorge) and Sam Cross (Filey) comes after North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Councils dropped a legal challenge over the government’s decision to withdraw funding for the scheme.
The pair say money that has been put to one side by the county council to pay for its building can now be used to shore up front line services – including protecting rural bus services.
The plans proposed are to build a £250m waste processing facility near Allerton Park that would process black bag waste for the whole of North Yorkshire.
Main access would be from the A1/ A168 and the facility would produce 24 mega watts of electricity or enough to power 40,000 homes. Up to 80% of the waste would be incinerated. The power from the incinerator would be converted to electricity rather than using a CHP (combined heat and power) system as there is no adjacent industry to utilize a CHP plant.
Waste would be transported from all corners of the county, including additional vehicles coming through Harrogate from the Skipton/ Craven area.
Coun Simister said: The tax payers of York and North Yorkshire have already shelled out in excess of £7 million on this incinerator that no one wants. To spend another penny will be a waste of money and must not happen.
This country is now well provided with waste incinerators, and that is the primary reason why the government has pulled its funding.
Coun Cross said: We are now writing to North Yorkshire’s chief executive Richard Flinton urging him to draw a line under this sorry saga.
Under no circumstances will we back any waste incinerator scheme at Allerton Park.
Over the last few years the county council has put millions-of-pounds into reserves for this incinerator. We say unlock this money so it can be used to protect services, such as rural bus services.