High court will judge legality of waste plant PFI cuts

Four Yorkshire councils have won the right to take DEFRA to court over its removal of private finance initiative (PFI) support from two municipal energy-from-waste (EfW) projects earlier this year.

The councils were granted high court approval on 22 August for two judicial reviews. These will separately decide the legality of DEFRA’s decision to cut PFI funding.

York City and North Yorkshire County Council’s judicial review is over the cancellation of £65m of PFI credits for their Allerton incinerator project. The other review, by Bradford City and Calderdale Councils, will examine the loss of £62m of PFI credits for a planned combined heat and power (CHP) plant at Bowling Back Lane, Bradford.