Essex County Council to spend £73m extending landfill contacts

The Tovi Eco Park Facility was designed to convert waste into energy

A council has agreed to spend £73m extending landfill contracts after an eco-processing plant failed.

The Eco Tovi site in Basildon, was meant to process up to 420,000 tonnes of waste for Essex County Council.

But the the plant proved unable to process the amount of waste sent there and has since been closed, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council says extending the landfill will give it time to make "the right and responsible arrangements."

Because of the problems, the authority wanted to quit its £800m contract with the Eco Tovi centre's operator and won a judgement in its favour at the High Court.

After the ruling, the site closed its doors and its operator, Urbaser Balfour Beatty (UBB), went into administration.

'Astronomical costs'

Since 2017, the county council has spent more than £190m on waste contracts.

At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, members agreed to spend an additional £73m extending landfill contacts from October 2022 to April 2024.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat group, Mike Mackrory, said: "We are talking about extraordinary amounts of money - that £73m is on top of what have paying since 2017.

"These costs are astronomical."

The failure of the Eco Tovi site means 270,000 tonnes of waste will no longer be diverted from landfill each year.

Cabinet member for waste reduction, Malcolm Buckley, said extending the landfill contracts was the council's "plan B".

"It is to buy us the time to make the right and responsible arrangements. It is not about rushing things and getting it wrong."