Hull Incinerator
Hull and East Riding Councils have a waste contract with a company called WRG to handle local waste. WRG had proposed building an incinerator under the contract.
This was to be in one of the poorest parts of town and would have undermined local refuse and recycling efforts.
WRG also said that due to increased costs, the Councils would have to extend the waste contract and allow them to build a much bigger incinerator. The Councils bid for £72million of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) cash to cover the spiraling costs of the project.
Local residents wanted cleaner solutions for disposing of their waste and campaigned hard to stop the incinerator from going ahead.
Our legal team worked with the local community to make a complaint to the European Commission, arguing that WRG would be breaking EU competition laws by changing the terms of the contract. We also pushed the UK Government not to grant the PFI because of this illegality.
The EU Commission stepped in and put a halt to the changes and the UK Government refused the PFI funding.
As a result East Riding and Hull Councils terminated their contract with WRG and the incinerator project has been scrapped.
Local people are using this opportunity to push for cleaner waste solutions in their community.
© Jenny Bates/ Friends of the Earth
