THE future of a proposed contract to process the entirety of Cheshire’s waste will be decided behind closed doors tomorrow, Wednesday.

Cheshire West and Chester Council’s (CWAC) Executive will consider options for the Cheshire Waste Private Finance Initiative (PFI) - a joint contract with Cheshire East Council, which was awarded to Viridor in November, 2010.

The company’s proposals for a mechanical and biological treatment plant off Griffiths Road, Lostock, were thrown into disarray in January last year after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) pulled the plug on a £100million portion of the £850million PFI.

The two Cheshire councils then challenged the Government’s decision in a judicial review, which was dismissed in August.

The issue will now be a key decision in Part B of tonight’s meeting, which is closed to the public and press.

A CWAC spokesperson said that any outcome from the Executive meeting would be subject to a decision made by Cheshire East Council when it next met to discuss the issue.

Kenton Barker, member of Stop Incineration in Disguise (SID), said the campaign group had arranged a follow-up meeting with the council to obtain feedback on the group’s proposals to use waste as a resource.

He said: “Once we have finalised that date we will then be able to see where they are coming from with regard to waste management moving forward.

“I think initially, with regard to the PFI, we obviously stand by the Government’s view that it isn’t needed and the money shouldn’t be issued to CWAC.”

He added: “It makes sense to have a Cheshire-wide contract dealing with waste with regard to economies of scale but under no circumstances should it include incineration.

“There are a number of options that are in our report we produced for CWAC that shows there are other viable options that can be used except incineration, and we stand by that.”

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