Dramatic news has emerged which has raised serious doubts over the plans of Tory-run Bucks County Council for a giant incinerator at Rookery Pit near Stewartby. It is reported that Buckinghamshire County Council is restarting its waste tendering process again after legal restraints were found to affect the land upon which US waste management giant Covanta planned to locate a 600,000 tonne incinerator.
Further details of the damaging financial legacy left to local taxpayers by the Conservative County Council have been exposed with the revelation that the cost of restoring a landfill site at Elstow, which had been neglected by the now defunct authority, could be as much as up to £10 million. The County Council, which ignored repeated warnings from the Environment Agency to take action and start work on the restoration of the site to comply with statutory requirements, had allocated just £4.3 million in their spending programme to 'cap' the site. Preliminary estimates by experts suggest that the work could cost local taxpayers up to £10 million.
Henry Vann has backed calls for a judicial review into the incarceration of innocent people in Yarl's Wood Immigration Detention Centre.
The Children's Commissioner has published a report highlighting ongoing concerns and maintaining the view that 'the detention of children for immigration control should cease'.
New recycling bins in Bedford Town Centre introduced by Liberal Democrat Mayor Dave Hodgson have seen just over ½ tonne of plastic bottles and drink cans collected in less than two months. The new recycling bins, which have been called for by Liberal Democrats on the Council for many years, were introduced following Dave Hodgson's election as Mayor. They are already helping to save local taxpayers money by reducing landfill costs and are enabling residents to recycle 'on-the-go' in the town centre for the first time.
Henry Vann has uncovered figures in a recent parliamentary report suggesting that the proposed merger of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Police Authority is 'likely to cost £20m'.
