Courts give permission for judicial review into Calderdale incinerator permit decision

In March, campaigners against a waste incinerator warned the council they would apply for a judicial review of the council’s decision to grant an environmental permit for the site – and learned today permission had been granted for a review.

Grounds for challenge included a question of law, and assertions over assessment of harm and safety tests and the group asked the council to quash the permit, which is needed for the small waste incinerator plant (SWIP) to operate.

The council did not agree, so legal representatives for the Benbow Group, who have campaigned against Calder Valley Skip Hire’s plans to operate the incinerator at its Belmont site in Sowerby Bridge, made the application.

Campaigners have said on social media that more details about what happens next will follow.

Cabinet’s approval of the environmental permit in February this year followed Calder Valley Skip Hire’s successful challenge to the authority’s refusal of planning permission for the incinerator, with a Planning Inspector allowing that application on appeal, the decision being announced in January 2020.

Halifax MP, Labour’s Holly Lynch, and Calder Valley MP, Conservative Craig Whittaker, are among those who have opposed the incinerator.

Ms Lynch today welcomed the decision to grant the review.

“I am very pleased to hear that the court has granted permission for a judicial review of the decision taken to grant a waste incinerator to Calder Valley Skip Hire to proceed.

“It has always been clear to me that the bottom of the Ryburn Valley is not a suitable site for an incinerator such as this, and I have worked with local residents in opposing this since day one.

“I will continue to work with those campaigners and do whatever I can to oppose waste incineration in Sowerby Bridge,” she said.

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