North Yorkshire taxpayers could face a multi-million-pound bill to keep a troubled waste plant operating within the law.
A North Yorkshire Council report reveals that work may be needed at Allerton Waste Recovery Park (AWRP) to meet stricter rules set by the Environment Agency.
If the cost of the work exceeds £2m, the authority may have to pay.
Council officials are working with an independent advisor to establish the likely costs required under the contract with operator Thalia Waste Management.
Opposition councillors who criticised the decision to sign up to a 25-year contract for the plant to take household waste say the potential payments are “direct and known” consequences of the deal.
Councillor Arnold Warneken, Green Party member for the Ouseburn division, said:
“The council should have listened to the community and the warning bells. They should never have built this incinerator.
“Environmental regulation moves too fast to be tied into such long contracts — it freezes us in the Jurassic age of waste and pollution, and creates financial chaos when laws change and big alterations must be made.
“Councils still considering this type of project must seriously reconsider.”
A report prepared for a meeting of the council’s transport, economy, environment and enterprise overview and scrutiny committee this week noted that 2024/25 had been a “difficult year” for the £1.2bn facility.
In total, 87.29 per cent of contracted waste was saved from going to landfill — this was a fall from 94.86 per cent in 2023/24 but still above the target of 70 per cent.
Meanwhile, the plant near Knaresborough, which opened in 2018, is yet to hit its recycling target of recycling or composting five per cent of the waste it receives, with the 2024/25 figure well below the target at 1.75 per cent.
A total of 48 instances of non-compliance with the site’s environmental permit were reported, compared to 26 the previous year.
All but one of the breaches were categorised by the Environment Agency as having “no impact on human health, quality of life or the environment”.
The report noted that Thalia had made “significant investment” into AWRP to improve future plant availability and performance.
Councillor Warneken said that as well as the potential costs to meet Environment Agency standards, the council had budgeted £6m per year from 2028 to pay for a carbon tax being brought in for incinerators.
He added:
“People were promised this facility would provide certainty and value for money.
“Instead, we are being warned that millions more of public money may be needed just to meet basic legal standards.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has contacted North Yorkshire Council for a response to the criticism.
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