Further Details of Toxic Tory Legacy Revealed: Cost of Restoring Elstow Landfill Site Could be up to £10 million

Further details of the damaging financial legacy left to local taxpayers by the Conservative County Council have been exposed with the revelation that the cost of restoring a landfill site at Elstow, which had been neglected by the now defunct authority, could be as much as up to £10 million. The County Council, which ignored repeated warnings from the Environment Agency to take action and start work on the restoration of the site to comply with statutory requirements, had allocated just £4.3 million in their spending programme to 'cap' the site. Preliminary estimates by experts suggest that the work could cost local taxpayers up to £10 million.

The County Council ignored a direction from the Environment Agency to start work on the overall restoration of the site, unused as a landfill site since October 2008, and to put in place an action plan for its ongoing management. An investigation of the site by Bedford Borough Council, which took ownership of it in April 2009, has revealed an extremely high build-up of leachate from the landfill, with five of the nine pumps in place to divert it having broken and stopped operating. The Borough Council has instructed the repair of the pumps and has established a planned maintenance schedule.

Commenting, Bedford Borough Council Environment Portfolio Holder Cllr Charles Royden said: "The appalling financial legacy of the high-taxing, poorly performing Conservative County Council is well known, but the individual examples of the contempt shown for local residents still have the power to shock. We are still uncovering some very disturbing examples of how local communities were let down sorely by the Tory County administration, with the Elstow landfill site one of the most glaring examples of their neglect. As part of the drive to open up the Council under Mayor Dave Hodgson we are seeking to bring Council affairs such as this out into the light from behind the veil of secrecy which was sadly a feature of the Conservative County administration.'

"If the County Council had been prepared to work with both the Environment Agency and the Borough Council on this issue in its final months, rather than maintaining an obstructive, secretive approach, the burden on local taxpayers now and in the future could have been much smaller. As it is, local taxpayers will have to pick up a bill which could rise to up to £10 million, although we will do all we can to make sure that costs are kept down while the necessary works are carried out."

The issue is made more complex by the fact that the County Council entered into a contract with the Nirah project under which it committed to build a car park for the proposed visitor and research centre on the landfill site. Despite making this agreement, the County Council put no budget in place to carry out this project.