Sowerby Bridge incinerator: Calderdale Council will contest incinerator permit judicial review

The Benbow Group, which has represented some objectors to Calder Valley Skip Hire being able to operate the incinerator at the company’s Sowerby Bridge site, says Calderdale Council will contest the application.

The council agreed late last year to grant a key environmental permit without which the company cannot operate the small waste incineration plant.

Malcolm Powell made the decision to issue a judicial review claim against Calderdale Council in respect of the grant of the permit.

The Benbow Group says the council has responded to the court saying it intends to contest the judicial review application in full.

The company has not made any response to the court, says the group.

The Benbow Group, who are supporting Mr Powell, says the next stage of the process is for the papers to be placed before a judge who will decide whether permission is given to proceed to a judicial review hearing.

“We are not sure on the timescales for this but last time it was around three months before the outcome was known,” says the group.

Mr Powell’s claim has urged the council to quash the permit.

A complicated history stretching back nearly 10 years has seen Calderdale Council refuse planning permission for the incinerator, and that decision being overturned on appeal to the planning inspectorate.

However, companies also have to have an environmental permit to run the incinerator, and following the company’s initial 2021 application, objectors went to law and won the right to a judicial review of the council cabinet’s decision to grant the permit.

After this the permit was quashed, the status of the permit application was deemed to be “undetermined” and the company appealed the non-determination.

But planning inspector John Woolcock, citing risk to health, dismissed this after an inquiry, effectively refusing it.

However, as the law stands, companies can lodge further applications, and this second application was granted by the council late last year.

Mr Powell set the legal ball rolling in the same way by seeking a judicial review over the 2021 environmental permit application.