TTS go to Royal Court for power to levy £10 million waste charge

Thursday 14 January 2016

A court challenge is being made by the TTS minister for the power to set aside a legal bar to plans to levy a charge on Jersey households to collect and dispose of rubbish.

The 1952 sale of the Bellozanne site by the Parish of St Helier to the States included a clause that the States could never charge St Helier residents for waste disposal.

But now, with a £10 million user-pays waste charge forming part of the plan to fill the £145 million deficit expected by 2019, TTS want to set that clause aside to get the charge set up.

If that charge was divided evenly across all Jersey households, it would work out at around £223 per household per year.

Last year, the States agreed the principle of introducing the charge by 2018, but no details have been agreed for how it would work.

Deputy Eddie Noel – who serves as Infrastructure Minister, the new name of the Transport and Technical Services role – confirmed that they were seeking the court’s ruling on whether the old covenant still applied.

He said: “We are in discussions with the parish about the Bellozanne covenant.

“We are suggesting that we get the court to opine on the interpretation of the covenant.

“To try to get change of behaviour in Islanders to recycle more and to be less wasteful, and the only way that we can do that is with a financial incentive, and like most modern jurisdictions, we want to look at having a gate fee at the energy from waste plant.”

The dispute has led to St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft resigning his position as head of the Environment Scrutiny Panel, because he says that he cannot continue in that role while there is a dispute with the TTS department stemming from his parish role.

The Solid Waste Strategy put together by the Environment and Public Services Committee and agreed by the States in 2005 included a reference to the covenant, which stated: “The legal advice to the Committee is that it is implicit in this obligation to accept the refuse free of charge.

“The Committee has made preliminary investigations into the options for resolving this situation, and will negotiate with the Parish of St Helier to find a satisfactory way forward.

“This may incur some costs which cannot be quantified in advance of discussions with the Parish.”