CARDIFF COUNCIL TO PAY £166 A TONNE while other Councils pay only £56

Prosiect Gwyrdd Rip off to pay far over the going price for Waste Incineration.

CARDIFF COUNCIL TO PAY £166 A TONNE while other Councils pay only  £56 

and to pay this rip off price for 25 years!

Prosiect Gwyrdd (Project Green) rip off applies to all partnership councils  

1. Cardiff Council, 
2. Caerphilly County Borough Council, 
3. Monmouthshire County Council, 
4. Newport City Council and 
5. Vale of Glamorgan Council.

The official survey by WRAP - 2012 Gate Fees Report *- finds that

the median gate fee for energy-from-waste incineration is £65 per tonne The lowest PFI-type incinerator contract has gate fee of £56 /tonne

In comparison PG calculated a 25-contract based on 2010 cost levels of £36.6 Million for 220 000 tonnes supplied to the incinerator (transport costs borne by the Councils). This means they were ready to pay £166 per tonne.

Why did PG think that was a good deal?  Not just that they wanted an incinerator built in South Wales, but it was based on PFI-costs in England, which have high bank charges.  Their scheme would rip-off Council taxpayers and provide cut-price capacity for businesses at similar rates to those reported by WRAP

Face of Prosiect Gwyrdd
Ian Loyd Davis

Prosiect Gwyrdd excuse the 25 yr-long contract by saying we get a better price! The officers even guessed a 10-yr contract would be twice the price, before the WRAP figures came out.  The evidence of these figures is of a worse price.  Former PG Steering Cttee member, Caerphilly's Colin Mann, recently repeated this, so did he ever ask for evidence? Seems cllrs are being severely  'mislead' by Prosiect Gwyrdd people. 

No wonder Viridor is so keen to build an incinerator/gold mine in Cardiff and Veolia trying to build in Newport

The PG comparative cost per tonne is available from the annual 25% subsidy (index-linked ) approved by WAG of £9.124M in April 2009 (based on secret OBC ‘Health Check’ figures of 2010), making £36.5M total. For the 220 000t pa, this gives £166 per tonne, higher than the maximum £131/t for new PFI-incinerators given below.  WRAP warns that the £166 /t gate fee for PG may not be directly comparable with those at older incinerators (£32 - £101 /t).  Still £166 /t compares badly with comparison with Defra-agreed PFI schemes of £56-102 /t (median £76 /t).

 Table 1   

EfW                 Pre-2000 facilities                   £64  median                            £32 to £75 range 

 Post-2000 facilities                 £82                                          £44 to £101

                         Defra Gate fee data [9]

             <200kt                                    £90                                          £79 to £131

  200kt to 300kt                       £76                                          £56 to £102

                         350kt to 450kt                        £68                                          £57 to £78

 [9]  Defra information on PPP/PFI projects that have reached contract closure in the last 5 years or are about to reach contractual close in the next 12 months.

*Download the full report - WRAP Gate Fees Report 2012

The Gate Fees report aims to raise price transparency and, through improving the flow of information, enhance the efficiency with which the waste management market operates.  A lack of market information may reduce a local authority's ability to make informed decisions on waste management options in terms of both economic and environmental costs.