Cllr Kevin Foster

Cllr Kevin Foster, Deputy Leader of Coventry Conservatives, has today (Sunday 23rd May 2010) written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne MP, calling on him to scrap the previous Governments offer of £129m of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) Credits for Project Transform.

Project Transform is a partnership between Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council and Solihull MBC to examine options for the future of waste disposal. The offer of PFI funding had been made by the previous Government and is based on providing a new facility to replace the Waste to Energy Plant in Whitley in 2016.

The use of PFI funding was one of a number of financial options looked at in recent years to deliver Project Transform including alternatives based on the current Waste Disposal Company directly building a new facility using either commercial or public finance. The alternatives were based on extending the life of the current Waste to Energy Plant.

As the Treasury looks for savings to deal with the huge deficit left by the previous Labour Government, Kevin believes that as cuts have to be made this is one item of funding that could be removed without a serious impact on Coventry. In addition removing PFI funding could give an opportunity for the new Government to work with the Councils concerned to deliver an exemplar project to meet one of the aims of the coalition agreement, namely that measures to promote a huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion should be implemented.

Cllr Kevin Foster, said: "As the new Government begins to reduce Britain's massive budget deficit the offer of PFI funding for Project Transform made by the previous Government is one item that should be cut. Whilst we believed it was right to keep PFI on the table much of the work done around Project Transform has shown that adopting it would only result in relatively small savings despite the large amount of government money that would be provided. The PFI timetable would also force the earlier than necessary replacement of the current plant at Whitley reducing the chance of finding an alternative technological or financial solution that may better suit the needs of Coventry."

He added: "Whilst we will continue to support partnership working with Solihull and Warwickshire to develop an integrated solution to disposing of Coventry's waste, our Alternative Budget for 2011/12 will reflect the fact that we believe the Government can make a saving by scrapping the PFI funding on offer to Project Transform. An alternative option, potentially based around the structure of the Coventry and Solihull Waste Disposal Company, should be developed to take our city forward."