Fenland District Council seeks review of Wisbech incinerator decision

A council has applied for a judicial review of the government's approval of a new incineration plant.

Fenland District Council wants to challenge the secretary of state's decision to award development consent for the proposed Wisbech incinerator.

MVV Environment wants to build the waste-to-energy facility on the Algores Industrial Estate near the Cambridgeshire-Norfolk border.

Campaigners have said it would cause pollution in a built-up area.

Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, granted development consent in February. Her decision cannot be appealed but judicial review could be a chance to challenge it.

The council said it had sought legal advice over the possibility of seeking a review after a unanimous vote at a meeting of Fenland's full council on 26 February.

A judge must now decide whether to grant permission for a review and then progress to a hearing.

The timescale in which an answer will be given is within the court's discretion, the authority said.

Several councils and groups have been opposed to the building of the Wisbech facility.

While the project has planning permission, the facility does not yet have a permit to operate.

The Environment Agency has said it would only issue one if it believed harm to the environment, people and wildlife would be minimised and that the operator had the ability to meet the permit's conditions.

This decision would usually be made by the Environment Secretary Steve Barclay, but as the planned facility is in his North East Cambridgeshire constituency, a government spokesman said he was "recused from the decision".

Mark Spencer, the Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs "is the minister responsible and would take any decision on this issue", a spokesman said. "No decision has been taken."

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