Questions raised at Cabinet & Council meetings

Questions for Worcestershire County Council 15th November 2012-11-13

These are questions in relation to the proposed mass burn incinerator

The Councils signed the waste contract in 1998 have they been paying costs in relation to the capital cost of the EfW

Which contract variation provides for the balloon payment and what is the estimated value of this. Please provide a copy of the variation. What is the Councils understanding of the legality of the balloon payment and or any extension of the contract in relation EU procurement.

Other Councils have the full business case and life time cost. Annex to these questions is an email from Defra indicating that the full contract should be provided. Why has the Council ignored this advice and that of Margaret Hodge MP chair of the Public accounts committee, that waste is not sensitive information. Please provide a copy of the full contract with all variations. If you are not prepared to give a full copy then please give a full legal basis as to why you are refusing this request and detail the specific contract paragraph numbers that fall within your contract.

In relation to electricity production what are the costs of linking up to the grid

If the plant failed either to the grid or produce the estimated 13.5K watts to the grid would this amount to a repudiatory breach of the contract. Please provide their feasibility study or risk assessment.

Why is the risk of methane gas migration not in the risk register. What is your risk assessment of it; please provide a copy of it.

Why would the council purchase land that has been shown by Mr Mark Bishop that the same land that was contaminated and is at risk of methane migration and how was this information considered when purchasing the land.

CHP annexed here to is an email from Paul Michael detailing his calculation of the loss of £116 million potential revenue due to unavailable large quantities of natural water supply and lack of full end user take up. What is the Councils calculation for lost revenue?

Councillor Ken Pollock stated on the 9th February his need for reassurance as scrutiny member that the project would cost less than a billion pounds. Has this concrete evidence been provided? On the 20th July Cllr Pollock tweeted his delights at planning permission being passed he has subsequently refused to call it into scrutiny stating it would be inappropriate. Please can the full scrutiny panel provide a response as to why it is wrong to scrutinise this contract.

Cllr Blagg has said there is no requirement to give a fixed amount of waste to Mercia. This has been contradicted by Cllr Bloomfield in public. Is there a fixed quantity or calorific value that will be required to be given to Mercia Waste.