"People power" victory
AN eco-campaigner is celebrating a "landmark decision for people power" after waste giant Veolia lost a High Court bid to keep an £850m PFI contract secret.
Shlomo Dowen, of the action group People Against Incineration, hopes a new "wave of active citizens" would be inspired after a judge chose to make public the details of Notts County Council's PFI deal with Veolia Environmental Services.
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campaign: Shlomo Dowen (right) with fellow protestors. POSTPHOTO C130509ML1-3
Veolia took out an injunction against the county council to stop it revealing full details of the 26-year contract after a request from Mr Dowen to see them.
It meant members of the public were only allowed to examine a redacted version of the accounts.
The Audit Commission and Mr Dowen submitted evidence to the High Court as "interested parties".
And yesterday Mr Justice Cranston found in favour of the county council, Mr Dowen and the Audit Commission.
Mr Dowen, 47, of Forest Town, said: "This is very significant for me and the people of Notts.
"It is a landmark decision for people power.
"I am very, very happy indeed. I am relieved that we have not lost a right to see this information.
"It is amazing how much we have had to go through just to see how our public money is being spent by our county council.
"I sincerely hope it will trigger a wave of active citizens who will take a keen interest in looking at public accounts.
"The right decision was made. Had it gone the other way, I would have been very worried.
"I am very happy with this decision. It was certainly the right one."
Notts County Council has now agreed to provide details of the PFI deal to Mr Dowen.
Mr Dowen said he hoped to see them before a public inquiry which starts on Tuesday into a proposed Veolia incinerator at Rainworth.
Roger Hamilton, the Audit Commission's solicitor and chief legal adviser, said: "We are pleased the court has accepted our submissions and confirmed our interpretation of the Audit Commission Act 1998."
Mick Burrows, chief executive of Notts County Council, said: "The council is pleased that the legal position in this respect has now been clarified for the future.
"The authority's partnership with Veolia Environmental Services on its waste management contracts remains strong and we will continue to deliver first class services for Nottinghamshire residents."
Steve Mitchell, managing director of Veolia Environmental Services in Nottinghamshire, said: "We first requested a legal ruling on this issue because we wanted to give clarity to local authorities, the general public and the waste management industry.
"The company accepts the judgement of the court; the situation has now been clarified and we do not plan to appeal."
chris.birkle@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk
7 Comments
by Me, Here
Monday, October 05 2009, 8:58AM
“It's not greenfield land you numpty: it's brownfield, ex-colliery land so has been used for recovering energy for many years.”
by J J-Rainworth resident, Rainworth
Saturday, October 03 2009, 1:27PM
“The majority of people in Rainworth are not "tree huggers" or "NIMBYS". The future generation deserve a cleaner environment to live and breathe. Landfill is not the way forward. We are all well aware of this but has no one ever heard of other means of disposing rubish? . The area in question IS a GREEN FIELD site on the edge of Sherwood forest and surely it deserves better than this.”
by Dave, Notts
Friday, October 02 2009, 6:05PM
“Let's get Veolia off running supposedly public transport, get rid of Interserve, get rid of Capita, get rid of Serco, get rid of ICTIS, get rid of nice.com and all of these other disgusting providers of the 'prison island' state.”
by Meeki, Nottingham
Friday, October 02 2009, 3:21PM
“Well done Mr Dowen and his supporters.
City Council will be given the opportunity to explain why they've given considerable taxpayer's money to promote their preferred private company.”
by Lee, Nottingham
Friday, October 02 2009, 2:17PM
“We need more incinerators not less. You simply can't recycle everything. Time these tree huggers and NIMBYs realised that”
by kaye brennan, Gedling
Friday, October 02 2009, 1:46PM
“Congratulations to Shlomo Dowen and PAIN! Such tenacity is to be applauded. What a waste of time and money this has been for the council and Shlomo and his supporters though - when a private company puts up legal barriers in order to hide relevant information about public money it is absolutely right that this challenged, but it should never have been the case that Veolia could stoop to such tactics.
Veolia are trying very hard to push yet another incinerator onto Notts residents - which will mean 2 in the region, and this one just 10 miles from the existing, badly-polluting chimneys of Eastcroft which was recently allowed to expand despite huge local opposition..
To have a voice in halting Veolia's plans come to the special public evening on 14th October at Rainworth Methodist Church 6pm.”
by MT, Nottingham
Friday, October 02 2009, 11:16AM
“Well done Mr Dowen and the Audit Commission.
A fair judgement over right to know over commercial interests.”