Waste strategy numbers add up – Environment president
THE cost of the waste strategy plans may have increased dramatically since they were approved but as they stand 'the numbers add up', Environment & Infrastructure president Barry Brehaut has said.
And speaking at a press briefing yesterday, Deputy Brehaut said that 'the timeline is really tight'.
'Two States Assemblies have rejected incineration and we no longer have the facility to put waste in the ground, so exporting waste is the responsible and reasonable thing to do,' he said. 'I am convinced that the numbers add up'.
Committee member Mark Dorey is Environment's representative on the Waste Strategy Implementation Programme Board, and said that a lot of work had been done to ensure that the figures in the report represented good value for money, even though the off-island processing of food waste was still to go out to tender.
Total anticipated operating and capital costs over the 20-year strategy have increased by more than £44m. in the past three years and £118m. since the export option was approved in 2012.
Tenders have now gone out for the household recycling centre, which will become the equivalent of the current Longue Hougue waste site, and again Deputy Dorey stressed that efforts had been made to make sure the figures 'are as accurate as possible'.
Jersey had expressed interest in taking the island's waste, but even though this option has been rejected in favour of UK company Geminor, Jersey has not been ruled out entirely. 'Jersey is not off the table,' said Richard Evans, deputy managing director of States' Trading Assets.
