The Wisbech incinerator saga continues as environment department "considers the need for more waste incinerators"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

7th April 2024 saw the BBC report that the government had officially put a stop to permits for new waste incinerator facilities across England on a ‘temporary’ basis, including one opposed by Environment Secretary Steve Barclay in his constituency.

A few days later, on 12th April, the plot - as they say - thickened, with the BBC following up their original report with further questions for Barclay and a Junior Minister in his department as new correspondence had been uncovered.

New questionable correspondence uncovered

The BBC reports that a letter has been published which shows a similar ban, for a much longer period, had been proposed by a different Junior Environment Minister a month earlier.

However, it isn’t clear whether Barclay had recused himself from the process at that point.

Conservative MP for Keighley, Robbie Moore wrote to the Environment Agency (EA) in February of this year to say that he intended to stop the EA issuing new permits for up to a year and gave the Agency just 24 hours to respond.

Earlier that day, the Planning Inspectorate had publicly confirmed that the Wisbech plant had permission to be built and the ban did not go ahead.

Interestingly, Mr Barclay has not said on what date he formally stepped back from decisions about permits and he previously told MPs that he had "delegated" the policy to another Minister, claiming to have not been made "aware until later" that he "required a formal recusal".

Labour have challenged this by saying that the correspondence raised concerns that Mr Barclay had abused his position and "colluded" with Junior Ministers to cover it up.

The environment department chose not to respond to Labour’s accusation but said it had temporarily paused permits while it "rightly" considered the need for more waste incinerators.

Is the need for more waste incinerators really being questioned this close to Net Zero deadlines?

This is an interesting comment in itself as the push for renewable energy and renewable solutions leading up to looming Net Zero deadlines is certainly intensifying here in the UK - the government pushing wind, solar, green hydrogen tech investment, CCUS, geothermal tech and other renewable energy generation solutions, alongside recycling, waste management and waste recycling solutions in the race to meet total Net Zero goals by the year 2050.

As such, it’s easy to see that waste management solutions and new waste projects have very much been vital to the Net Zero movement… up until now, apparently. So, what's changed?

By halting waste incineration permits, even on a temporary basis, the government is putting new waste projects at risk; potentially putting investors off as well as potentially undermining the long term legitimacy of future waste projects… during a time when waste management solutions are key to achieving UK Net Zero goals and long term energy security.

It certainly is a bizarre and questionable move. Especially with an election just around the corner.