People Against Incineration (PAIN) has been trying to get full details of the 26-year Private Finance Initiative waste contract and the incinerator contract Nottinghamshire County Council signed with Veolia Environmental Services in 2006.

It is fighting plans by the company for a waste incinerator at the former Rufford Colliery and has been calling on council chiefs to release contract details — which they are expected to do later this month.

‘Overdue’

Said group spokesman Shlomo Dowen: “We are coming up to the second anniversary of the signing away of our rights and we still haven’t seen the substance of the contracts.

“It is long overdue. We should have seen them when they were in draft form so we could have made a meaningful contribution.”

County council leaders have only revealed limited information about the contract because of ‘commercial sensitivity’ but PAIN has put pressure on after rulings by the Information Commissioner about Veolia contracts in other parts of the country.

The Information Commissioner, who regulates access to information, said Brighton and Hove City Council and East Sussex County Council must release more details of their contracts with Veolia — but said some information could remain confidential.

A Nottinghamshire County Council spokesman told Chad the authority had set up a public interest panel to consider the request for more information to be released.

“The public interest panel was made up of three independent senior council officers who spent many hours reviewing the contracts and working with the third party contractor involved (Veolia),” said the spokesman.

‘Exemptions’

“As a result, the panel reached the decision to release the contracts, with only some minor exemptions.”

The sensitive information in the contracts is now being removed and they will be available to view on the council’s website, www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk, from the week commencing 19th May.

l The next public meeting of PAIN takes place on 16th May at Rainworth’s Joseph Whitaker School at 6.30pm where Sherwood MP Paddy Tipping will speak about getting the planning application called in by the Secretary of State so the county council will not have the final decision on it.

ENDS