In a dramatic announcement on Friday, the Inspector running the Public Inquiry into the North London Waste Authority’s (NLWA) proposal to build a giant incinerator at Pinkham Way rejected the plan because of lack of consultation.  The Waste Plan consortium had failed to fulfil its legal
obligation to liaise with partner authorities Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire before publishing
the plan, which is therefore not legally compliant and cannot proceed.

The Inquiry is now abandoned while the Authority seeks advice on how to go forward.  Its options include abandoning the Pinkham plan altogether, or else beginning again and consulting with the neighbouring authorities as it is bound to do by statute, before seeking a new Public Inquiry and following the process it should have adopted originally.  It is estimated that this could delay the project by between six months and a year.

Taxpayers’ money wasted on scheme nobody wants.

Alexandra Ward LibDem Councillor Juliet Solomon, who has been working closely with the Pinkham Way Alliance said,

This is good news but it is mind boggling that a multi-million pound public body, spending our taxpayers’ money on waste disposal, could make such an elementary mistake.  The law is clear, ongoing consultation with affected authorities is compulsory.  Sadly, we are used to Haringey Council failing to consult residents but we did expect that the NLWA would have talked to the more muscular official bodies it does business with.  Now we must all regroup to be ready for the next phase of the fight, whatever that is.