A strong case for the prosecution

DOUGLAS SHEPHERD examines the evidence in the Easter Langlee debacle

The completion of a two-and-a-half year investigation into the failed Scottish Borders waste treatment project has uncovered sufficient evidence to make a charge of gross maladministration stick against those in charge of the contract.

That is Not Just Sheep & Rugby's conclusion based on the contents of dozens of documents which had to be prised out of secret files at Scottish Borders Council via Freedom of Information requests and on the instructions of the Scottish Information Commissioner.

The refusal to accede to requests for information was maintained steadfastly on grounds of "commercial confidentiality" even after debt-ridden contractors New Earth Solutions [NES] collapsed into administration and its offshore funding partner New Earth Recycling & Renewables (NERR) fund was discovered to be insolvent. We maintain SBC indulged in a cover-up in a bid to protect themselves from scrutiny and embarrassment, not to mention responsibility.

It is impossible to mount a defence for SBC as the local authority has maintained a stony silence ever since they were forced to abandon their deeply flawed deal with NES in February 2015 at a cost of at least £2.4 million to council taxpayers.

Not a single elected member has offered a plausible explanation or offered an apology for the collapse of a £23 million construction project which left the Borders waste management strategy in complete disarray.

Now a second planning application has been lodged for the development of a £4 million waste transfer station [WST] on the former New Earth site where refuse collections can be centralised before being carted by road to a destination outwith the area for treatment. The first attempt by Borders council officials to secure permission was thwarted by er Borders councillors!

There is so much damning evidence now in the public domain that it is difficult to outline its impact within the confines of a single article. But here are the main revelations and questions which now hang over the SBC/NES contract:

*Apart from rubber stamping the original contract with NES in 2011 and nodding through a disastrous amendment to the deal in October 2012 there is no evidence of control or even involvement by elected councillors who were responsible for planned expenditure of £23 million at Easter Langlee. What was their actual role? The absence of written records suggests they left matters entirely in the hands of paid officials and extremely costly consultants.

* Had the contract not been varied the Borders should have had a conventional treatment plant capable of diverting 80% of waste from landfill up and running by 2013. Our region ended up with nothing with an end to landfill looming large.

*Councillors agreed in private in 2012 to include Advanced Thermal Treatment – a form of gas-engine incineration – in the project to convert refuse into electricity. Unfortunately the so-called NEAT technology had never been proven commercially at any location, and it never worked.

*NES told SBC at different stages of their relationship that funding for Easter Langlee would come from the firm’s offshore partners, then from one of eight named banks, and latterly from New York. Despite the string of promises and excuses, money for the plant was never in place.

*In late 2013 the NEAT research and development trials were going so badly that New Earth warned of a further two-year delay, taking completion to (hopefully) July 2017. Why did councillors not step in at that stage and order the contract to be abandoned forthwith instead of allowing the farce to continue for another 15 months at great public cost?

*At this point New Earth directors suggested abandoning the gas option and replacing it with a brand of steam technology. But to be viable the re-designed plant would require a 70,000 tonne capacity rather than the 40,000 tonne plant needed to deal with Borders waste. The answer would be to import garbage from other parts of the country.

*In a desperate bid to keep the project alive, NES proposed in 2014 that until the Galashiels centre was completed all of the rubbish from the Scottish Borders should be transported out of the region in fleets of lorries for treatment somewhere in North-east England. Ironically, that is the only environmentally unfriendly solution left to the council in 2017 as a direct result of catastrophic mismanagement of the contract.

*A large delegation of councillors and officials returned from a 'fact finding mission’ to south-west England in October 2014 and confirmed their waste treatment solution was on track and would be an asset to the Scottish Borders. But behind the scenes the project was on the verge of collapse, and four months later it had to be abandoned.

Despite all of these hard facts Scotland's public spending 'watchdog' Audit Scotland has stated repeatedly there was/is no need for an investigation into this mess of SBC's making. Apparently the council pulled the plug at the right time otherwise even more of our cash would have disappeared down a proverbial black hole.

Audit Scotland did concede the loss of £2.4 million was a "poor outcome" for the council. No it wasn't. It was a very poor outcome for taxpayers, but SBC simply wrote off the money and carried on as though nothing had happened.

We rest our case....

Running out of options and still no cash!

EWAN LAMB closes the lid on our damning expose of Borders waste contract

Waste management "specialists" New Earth Solutions did everything they could to keep their multi-million pound contract with Scottish Borders Council alive and kicking throughout 2014 even though the project had been suffering from dead duck syndrome long before that.

As we reported previously, the latest wheeze was a suggested switch from gas engine to steam technology which would fire the incinerators at Easter Langlee and deal with the region's 40,000 tonnes of municipal rubbish.

But unfortunately, to render the steam option viable the plant would require up to 70,000 tonnes of garbage, generating a need to import vast quantities of waste from outwith SBC's territory.

Meanwhile the ingenious head honchos at NESG were offering to export all of the Borders rubbish by road for treatment elsewhere until Easter Langlee was commissioned - hopefully although not definitely in 2017.

The evidence contained in recently released "secret" files from the vaults at SBC suggests an air of growing desperation and a clutching at straws mentality as the gas-based NEAT technology continued to misbehave and the only way of securing £23 million to build the Borders plant appeared to be via the National Lottery or the Euro Millions!

Here's what one member of the project team had to say about the steam solution and the prospect of taking local rubbish in fleets of lorries for treatment in North-east England:

I note the potential steam solution. A key issue looks as if it may be third party volumes - is it realistic that 70/80k tonnes RDF per annum could be sourced for a plant at Easter Langlee - there surely must be some doubt here.

"The interim residual waste treatment solution is potentially interesting. It is another matter, of course, whether whatever might be offered would save cost to the Council in the interim compared to continuing disposal to landfill. 

"Also, we should be mindful that the purpose of the moratorium (and its hoped-for outcome) is to see if a clear way forward can be found for the final residual waste treatment solution and within what timescale, so we might not wish to pursue any interim solution unless and until satisfied following the moratorium that the final residual waste treatment solution is judged to be technically viable, fundable and likely to be implemented within a satisfactory timescale."

But steam treatment for Borders waste was firmly knocked back by SBC's technical consultant who wrote: "In summary, we feel that the adoption of a steam-based solution would be a retrograde step. The steam solution could be costlier, require additional merchant capacity to be affordable, necessitate changes to planning and permitting and would not be capable of retro-fit to gas engines should this be shown to be technically feasible in the future."

There were warnings too that continuing delays could completely derail the council's waste treatment strategy.

A senior officer expressed concern in an email dated August 2014: "Overall, to me, there are positives but we need to be careful that the re-financing news and the possible steam option is not masking the poor performance of Canford (R&D centre for NEAT technology) and NES’ appetite to continuing to pursue gas to engine technology.

"Ultimately we need to bear in mind that we are on a relatively short timeline for delivering a project to meet the first Zero Waste target in 2021, if NES fail to deliver. The latest SBC would need  to start is April 2017. Therefore we need to make sure that between now and October (2014) NES are focusing on a viable option to deliver the project and not stalling for additional time."

The method of paying for the major scheme at Galashiels had also shifted yet again. None of the range of banks and finance houses named in previous correspondence had been persuaded to sign up, and now eyes were turning to bigger fish and across the pond to New York.

An August 2014 email showed just how wide NES were casting their net. In it the managing director himself told SBC: "Pairing up with a larger fund – We are currently speaking to both EY (Ernst & Young) and PWC (Price Waterhouse Cooper) about identifying larger funds who would co-invest alongside NERR to provide finance directly to future NESG projects. This review has identified a number of funding partners and a first line of due diligence is being undertaken to identify the most suitable.

"Funding directly into the project – During the Avonmouth refinancing process the senior debt provider has been asking us if they can now invest directly at the start of our next projects. Scottish Borders has featured prominently in this conversation however, the existing funder would probably expect that the solution is a steam based energy project because they have now got themselves comfortable with the proven nature of this technology. 

"We have also now received approaches from a number of other funders who have been watching the operability test and have indicated that they would now be comfortable lending directly into this technology.

Sale of non-core business – In September we are on target to complete the sale of one of our non-core green / food waste processing businesses. This is highly confidential at the moment and we would appreciate you not forwarding this information onto any of your advisers. 

"We will be making a press announcement at the appropriate stage. Some of the proceeds of this will repay the senior debt attached to the contracts, however, the majority will be returned to NERR (the Isle of Man fund which repeatedly failed to come up with cash for Easter Langlee)."

Despite the reticence of their own experts on the issue of a steam system for Easter Langlee, and the complete lack of funding as of August 2014, a delegation of councillors and lead officers from the council returned from a "fact finding mission" to the NES Avonmouth plant two months later declaring their ideal solution for dealing with Borders rubbish was on track.

How wrong could they be?

NEXT: DRAWING OUR OWN CONCLUSIONS

The Age of Steam?

DOUG COLLIE reports on a radical move to solve the deepening Borders waste crisis

The repeated failure of the so-called NEAT system of incineration at the research and development stage meant that by early 2014 the planned £23 million waste treatment facility for Scottish Borders to deal with up to 40,000 tonnes of municipal rubbish was already years behind schedule.

A newly released file of around 80 documents linked to the disastrous contract between Scottish Borders Council and waste management company New Earth Solutions Group has provided detailed information concerning the test failures which frustrated the Borders project throughout its existence.

Our recent series of articles has attempted to give readers an idea of how far NESG engineers were from perfecting the Advanced Thermal Treatment (ATT) system which was to be installed in the plant at Easter Langlee, Galashiels.

Yet another failed test is chronicled in a report from July 2014. Those involved in the project had already been given the devastating news of a further two year delay thanks to the technological hitches coupled with a lack of financial backing for the gas-based pyrolysis method of converting refuse into electricity.

The technical report on the July event says: "An extended trial began in the evening of 6th July. Unfortunately the trial had to be stopped in the afternoon of 7th July due to a significant pressure drop across the pyrolyser. Initial investigations suggest that a problem has occurred with the char (ash) extraction.

"The fuel used in the trial was a 60/40 blend of oversize and biofines and the feed rate was 1 tonne/hour. This is a different mix to that previously used but very comparable to the fuel specification for Easter Langlee. It is considered that a greater quantity of char is produced from this fuel specification and coupled with a high feed rate this has led to a build-up of char in the pyrolyser and consequently the pressure drop experienced. Further investigations are being carried out to confirm if this is the case."

A leading member of the project team commented in an email:“This again is worrying.  It has taken 1 year and 8 months since the DoV (the fateful Deed of Variation signed by councillors in October 2012 and implemented in December 2012) to run fuel representative of Easter Langlee and it caused problems!”

However, help was at hand. Within a month NESG, which had provided a long string of reasons and excuses for delays with technology and funding, suddenly came up with another massive contract revision to solve Easter Langlee's woes.

An email from top brass at New Earth HQ to SBC set out the solution in detail. The message explained: "As you are aware the Easter Langlee project has always been based on small scale energy generation using gas to engine technology. 

"With the experience we have gained at Avonmouth (the NESG plant near Bristol) we now consider a steam based project to be potentially viable. In part this has been aided because the original regulatory permit requirements of SEPA preferred a gas to engine solution to a steam solution. During the intervening period SEPA has relaxed these regulations to the point that a steam solution like that in use at Avonmouth appears more possible. To this end, the NESG team are doing a review of the viability of delivering a steam solution to Scottish Borders."

Such a major switch in technology would require a wide-reaching project review, and some of the points for discussion are set out in the document. We reproduce the text in full:

 Scale – Because of the inclusion of the boiler and other ancillary equipment the steam system takes up more space so we need to identify if we can accommodate it / what additional space would be needed and the implications on planning and permitting.

 Affordability – Again because of the boiler the capital cost of this solution is higher. We are looking to see if the solution can be tailored to meet the requirements of the Scottish Borders volumes.

 Third party volumes – It may be that a steam solution is only viable at a minimum of 9-10 units which equates to 70-80 thousand tonnes of RDF per annum (double the volume of rubbish generated in Scottish Borders). 

For this reason we will need to discuss with you any issues arising from bringing other parties material into the site. We also need to understand if this material is available. Clearly if we can provide a steam solution it would enable us to speed up the project because we would no longer be waiting on the Canford R&D development timetable and the funding for this solution would be more readily available.

And with the Borders scheme so far behind schedule, NESG even had a short-term sweetener on offer to deal with household rubbish until the steam engine arrived in the Easter Langlee "siding".

The email continued: " Interim residual waste treatment solution – In recognition that the project has been delayed, NESG is currently reviewing the availability of emerging treatment capacity in the North East of England. 

"This could result in New Earth offering the Council an interim treatment solution for all or part of its residual waste, which could be transferred from the Council’s transfer stations to a third party treatment facility, pending the development of the Easter Langlee treatment facility. Clearly we would appreciate your early feedback to this concept as we understand that you will have engineered void at Easter Langlee landfill and also landfill gas generation income. However, this potential opportunity may offer the Council an interim recycling and landfill diversion benefit."

How ironic: a proposal hatched in 2014 to transport local refuse in fleets of lorries for treatment elsewhere turns out to be the preferred option in 2017...if planning permission can be secured for a waste transfer station on the same site where a conventional treatment facility should have been functioning FOUR years ago. A glittering example of bungling incompetence?

NEXT: THE REACTION TO THE STEAM OPTION

Spluttering into 2014...

DOUG COLLIE on yet more setbacks for Easter Langlee

The damning evidence which Scottish Borders Council wanted to keep from public scrutiny shows 2013 had been a veritable annus horribilis for the project team aiming to provide the region with a fit for purpose waste management facility costing £23 million.

Council contractors New Earth Solutions were warning of another two-year delay to the project at Easter Langlee, Galashiels as engineers struggled unsuccessfully to get the chosen gas incineration technology - inappropriately dubbed NEAT - to work. Only Borders councillors had been impressed...they approved the untested system in October 2012.

And newly released files from a debacle which cost taxpayers, shareholders and investors many millions of pounds have revealed that the money needed to build the plant simply had not been sourced.

Not Just Sheep & Rugby has brought much of the evidence from 2013 into the public domain after SBC was ordered to end its concerted attempts to surround their disastrous liaison with NESG with secrecy. But the collection of some 80 reports, emails and other correspondence show progress on Project Easter Langlee would also be non-existent throughout 2014.

One of the litmus tests for the NEAT Advanced Thermal Treatment (ATT) appears to have been to get it to function non-stop for 120 hours at New Earth's R&D centre in Canford, Kent. This would be a watershed if banks and other investors were going to commit.

We have already reported on several failed tests during the course of 2013, and 2014 would prove to be little different. The documentation may be technical but the outcome is there for all to see.

This report followed an attempted 120-hour test in January 2014:

"A 120hr trial began at 9pm Sunday 12th January 2014. The whole system was run – pyrolyser, gas clean-up, engine – and the trial progressed well for 64 hours. Whilst operating, the engine produced c.310KWe. At two points within this 64hr run, operations had to cease (for 14 hours in total) due to failures of ancillary equipment: Diesel burner problems (used to heat the pyrolysis tube). The fuel feed pipeline to the diesel burner was restricting the flow. The pipeline was replaced.

"Unfortunately the trial was stopped after 64 hours due to a pressure drop across the ceramic filter indicating a broken filter element. Investigations confirmed that an element had broken. The cause of the breakage is thought to be differential thermal expansion of the cleaning mechanism (as per previous breakages). This will be remedied through increasing the tolerances further."

The following month's test produced this documentation:

"It was proposed to carry-out a 120hr trial in w/c 17th February. The trial commenced on 18th February and initial progress was good with a consistent fuel gas being produced.

However, the trial had to be halted after seven hours of operation as the gas booster fan tripped.  The plant was shut down in a controlled manner as required to prevent escape of gas and uncontrolled combustion.

"On investigation it was found that the electrical motor for the fan had collected water within the casing.  The site had been experiencing inclement weather for some time and despite the weatherproofing of the fan, rainwater had penetrated the casing. Unfortunately the rain had also penetrated the building containing the combustion chamber and soaked the ceramic fibre insulation which subsequently collapsed into the chamber."

Third time lucky? Not exactly: there were a number of issues to be addressed following a further test in early April 2014:

"On Sunday 6th April a 120hr trial commenced on the plant at Canford. RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) had been dried prior to this to ensure sufficient fuel was available. The trial was stopped after approximately 36hrs as the pressure drop across the ceramic had increased indicating a breakage of one (or more) of the filter elements. 

"This is being investigated. From an initial review of the data, the syngas quality was as expected and the fuel feed system worked well at a feed rate of c.500kg per hour. Despite the assumed breakage of filter elements, the quench system did not show signs of particulate indicating that there has been no carry-over from the filters. During the trial the char extract system jammed a couple of times due to large foreign objects – temporary fencing clamps, metal wall ties, metal sweet tins, etc. but these were dealt with without interrupting the process. Further upstream removal of metals may be required to alleviate this."

Ceramic filter breakages continued during further trials over the summer.

COMING NEXT: FULL STEAM AHEAD!

A disturbing new discovery....

by EWAN LAMB

An investigation by Not Just Sheep & Rugby has uncovered another mysterious chapter in the story of the Scottish Borders' failed £23 million waste treatment project following the release of 'commercially confidential' files on the orders of the Scottish Information Commissioner.

As we have reported over the last few days, the recently published paperwork showed Scottish Borders Council's deal with waste management contractors New Earth Solutions Group (NESG) was in deep trouble during the second half of 2013.

Project reports and emails from senior officers confirmed troubling issues had been encountered on two fronts - technology and finance.

There was even mention of the scheme to construct an Advanced Thermal Treatment (ATT) facility at Easter Langlee, Galashiels incorporating New Earth's self-styled NEAT technology having to be cancelled altogether.

The development of the NEAT system was proving troublesome while potential funders New Earth Recycling & Renewables Ltd (NERR) - managed by Premier Group (Isle of Man) - could not bridge the cash gap.

As an email written by a project team member warned: "NERR's cash balances stood at £5.484 million on August 20 (2013), down from £7.968 million on July 19 ---- the gap between the cash funds at NERR's disposal and the amount actually required to deliver the (Borders) project (£23 million) has widened over the past month".

By November 2013 NESG had advised there would be another two-year delay at Easter Langlee with construction of the ATT facility unable to start until June 2016.

A 120-hour technology trial of the NEAT system which started on November 17 had to be stopped after just five hours, and the plant had to be shut down to prevent significant damage. This event prompted a council appointed consultant to comment: "This may have been the final incident that convinced NES to come clean and admit that there was no chance of implementing NEAT on a commercial scale in 2014".

However, those engaged in the procurement of Project Easter Langlee appear to have been living in a parallel universe to that inhabited by directors and managers of the NERR fund, and by the top brass at NESG, our investigations have found.

A lengthy press statement issued on the Isle of Man by Premier, and dated November 28 2013, boasted that net assets of NERR "are now around £200 million". But that was not the only claim being made by those at the helm.

According to the news release NEAT was "patented and fully operational", and the company's 'stat-of-the-art' energy recovery facility in Avonmouth, Bristol could process 120,000 tonnes of waste derived fuel each year and exported enough electricity for around 25,000 homes.

The highly positive spin on the performance of NERR and of NEAT was part of a strategy leading to a "possible Initial Public Offering [IPO] on the London stock exchange to support ambitious UK and overseas growth plans".

These must have been staggering claims in light of what was happening with the Scottish Borders venture. But there is no indication that these fanciful plans were challenged or questioned by those in charge at SBC.

 Premier's statement declared: "Launched just over 5 years ago amidst the worst global financial crisis this century, the New Earth fund range have seen strong demand both in the UK and internationally such that net assets of New Earth Renewables & Recycling (Infrastructure) plc, the master holding fund, are now around £200 million.

"The fund’s investors have seen the value of their shares increase by nearly 84% in the original Sterling Sub-Fund of the Premier Investment Opportunities Fund Protected Cell Company plc, with very little volatility along the way, whilst even the more recent investors are looking at good returns over 6 months of nearly +6% in the same share class."

NERR investors were barred from making withdrawals from the fund from 2013 onward and the investment entity became totally insolvent in 2016 with more than 3,200 individuals warned they could expect to lose everything. And in 2013 NESG was already heavily in debt to banks and to NERR itself.

None of that prevented NERR director David Whitaker telling potential investors: "The successful conclusion of this project (IPO) will help New Earth make the step change required to take it on to the next level and, very importantly for the shareholders, should lead to a successful outcome for them too."

And Head of Premier, Mike Richardson provided this quotation:“We are really pleased that New Earth feel that the time is now right to make their move. Given the recent performance of the UK economy and stock markets, including a very successful high profile IPO, we are fully behind the decision and hope it will be as beneficial for investors in the funds as it will be for the New Earth themselves.”

A number of publications appear to have taken company statements at face value, and a clutch of positive articles were published, including a feature in the Financial Times.

Commenting on the future of New Earth to online trade magazine Let's Recycle, company chairman Bill Riddle said: New Earth started life as a composting business but is now firmly focused on residual waste treatment, thermal technology development and renewable energy generation. The NEAT technology offers scope for us to become not just a national company, but an international one."

Unfortunately the Stock Market flotation never happened, the finance to develop Easter Langlee was never in place and the NEAT technology continues to cause problems at Avonmouth to this day.

Not so NEAT: Borders project in intensive care!

DOUGLAS SHEPHERD shows why Scottish Borders Council were so keen to hide evidence...

If the lack of progress on the Scottish Borders' £23 million waste management facility at Galashiels was concerning the group of council staff and their advisers attempting to procure and deliver the scheme then their frustrations must have been magnified many times when the contractors warned of a further two year delay because of serious technical issues.

Newly released top secret documents from the Scottish Borders Council/New Earth Solutions files include stark warnings from consultants in December 2013 that:

*Development of the Easter Langlee Advanced Thermal Treatment [ATT] plant could be cancelled altogether.
* There was a risk that SBC would have no solution for dealing with the region's residual waste.
*New Earth Solutions could have decided to put the Scottish Borders project "on hold".

Our previous revelations have provided strong evidence of the repeated technical issues which were preventing any meaningful progress on the development of the so-called NEAT pyrolysis and gasification system needed to incinerate rubbish in the Borders.

And funding for the multi-million pound Easter Langlee job was dependent on the refinancing of New Earth's recently completed Avonmouth Energy from Waste project near Bristol. That particular plant would develop major problems in the months and years ahead, and it is currently closed down completely to facilitate radical modifications involving major additional investment by new owners.

The 'investment house' regarded as the most likely to bankroll the Borders venture was New Earth's partners New Earth Recycling & Renewables [Infrastructure] Ltd (NERR).

Reports and emails from two firms of consultants working for SBC - Nevin Associates and SLR Consulting - reveal the extent of the growing crisis which was threatening to envelop the project well over a year before SBC decided enough was enough and abandoned the scheme at a cost to local taxpayers of at least £2.4 million.

The SLR report, written after visits to Canford, the New Earth R&D centre in Kent, and to the Scottish Borders, coincided with NES's bombshell letter indicating a potential two years delay to the project whilst a demonstrator facility was built at Canford and was proven, leading to a re-jigged construction programme at Easter Langlee with commissioning now pushed back to July 2017.

The somewhat technical explanation states: "The justification given for the delay is the financing requirement to demonstrate a significant operation through from front-end to final engine exhaust as an integrated facility demonstrating utilisation of heat recovery and efficiencies of operation throughout".

This followed on from an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate a 120-hour testing programme when a new issue was determined and explained as being in connection with over-drying of feedstock and loss of sealing plug in the feed system which in turn led to a safety issue for the process.

According to SLR's expert: "As a part of the justification the implication is that NERR financing is more risk averse due to issues emanating from the Avonmouth facility's failure to meet targets and some scepticism perhaps with regards to anticipated outputs.

"Indirectly it was reported that the facility at Avonmouth operates at up to 75% of targeted performance and perhaps reading between the lines this may also be at the sacrifice of availability although this was not officially confirmed by NES."

SLR's report also reveals that between Oct 2015  and Feb 2016 the revised target was now for 2000 to 4000 operational hours leading to an ability to commit to financial close for the Scottish project in early 2016.  

"It was pointed out that plant operation indicated as July 2017 could jeopardise Renewables Obligation certification and NES indicated that they would look to bring this to March 2017 for operations to commence. Overall the programme seems to be very loose and SLR should question its accuracy and the ability for NES to be able to firmly guarantee anything with respect to meeting the proposed targets – especially in light of an inability to demonstrate 120-hours operation on the simplistic test facility within the past 6 months plus."

NES were unable to provide any confirmation with regards to conditions imposed by their own test facility finance which might be required before their project commencement date of April 2014 although this might link to demonstration of 120 hour test with the current test rig. 

SLR's report concludes: "In summary it is difficult for SLR to understand whether there is a reticence to try to develop because; data attained does not show the process favourably; if operational issues at Avonmouth are taking priority or are showing some fundamental issues with the technology; if the technical team are capable of addressing and managing the problems to an expedient solution."

The bottom line was that NES would not be in a position to commence work on the ATT facility at Easter Langlee until June 2016 although even that date - more than two years behind schedule - appeared optimistic.

In a separate contribution to the debate Nevin Associates wrote: "The 120 hour technology trial for NEAT starting on November 17 stopped after five hours when 'the fuel that forms the plug preventing air ingress into the pyrolysis tube failed, and in order to prevent significant damage to the plant, the plant was shut down.' This may have been the final incident that convinced NES to come clean and admit that there was no chance of implementing NEAT on a commercial scale in 2014 ."

Yet again Not Just Sheep & Rugby believes it must point out that Borders councillors had sanctioned the use of NEAT technology in OCTOBER 2012. It is therefore extremely surprising, and perhaps concerning, that the new files contain not a single contribution from elected members of the local authority.

There is no mention of councillors who should have been supervising planned expenditure of £23 million asking questions about potentially fatal blows for a vitally important environmental facility. If meetings were held and minutes were taken then they certainly have not been produced so we can only conclude they do not exist. 

The public's elected representatives must therefore shoulder responsibility for the decision to allow work on the project to continue unhindered beyond 2013 despite the evidence from documents now publicly available for the first time.

Nevin's report pointed out the revised programme meant that the detailed design of the Canford project would be completed by April 2014, and construction of the Canford demonstration facility would commence in July 2014.

"The facility itself will, on this programme, only become operational in July 2015, and revised schedule for the Easter Langlee facility – i.e. start on site in June 2016 – implicitly assumes that there will be no significant problems at Canford. If there are, then one could anticipate further delays, or even cancellation, of the Easter Langlee ATT facility.

"This could leave us hanging on the outcome of the Canford trials, over which we have no control, and if those were to fail or (more likely) take longer than anticipated to succeed, then we would still potentially be exposed to the risk of having no treatment solution in place for the Council’s residual waste."

In a separate comment, the consultant declared: "The paucity of information on the progress of the project suggests that NES have in effect put the Scottish Borders project on hold,".

NEXT: CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS?  NEW EARTH CLAIMS N.E.A.T WILL MAKE THEM WORLD FAMOUS

Council "in the dark" over waste project start date

by EWAN LAMB 

A start date for construction of the £23 million waste treatment facility to deal with household rubbish in the Scottish Borders had still not been fixed some two and a half years after local councillors awarded a potentially lucrative contract to debt-ridden 'specialists' New Earth Solutions.

The uncertainty which prevailed in late 2013 as to when building work would get underway at Easter Langlee, Galashiels is outlined in some detail in reports and emails made public for the first time via Freedom of Information requests.

And while apparently insurmountable issues continued to bedevil technology trials for the so-called NEAT Advanced Thermal Treatment system planned for the Borders site, New Earth bosses were becoming more and more frustrated over the "attitude" of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency [SEPA] towards the granting of an operating certificate for the incinerator.

Not Just Sheep & Rugby has reported in the past on attempts by the contractors to pressurise SEPA into sanctioning the paperwork for Easter Langlee. Now correspondence between NES and Scottish Borders Council confirms SBC was deeply unhappy with the attempts to steamroller the independent Scottish watchdog.

A report from September 2013 which was written by NES sets out their position. It states: "As SBC is aware, we disagree with SEPA in a number of areas relating to their need for certain data in order to process the certificate.  Now we are through the “difficult” part of the project (i.e. the planning application), as discussed at the previous meeting, we may need SBC’s assistance with lobbying through Scottish Government to bring pressure to bear on SEPA. .

"We  met with Zero Waste Scotland (at an event) and expressed frustration with SEPA’s approach and we will be following up on this initial contact."

The council was less than pleased with NES's attempt to hector SEPA. A response made public with the rest of the 2013 file reads: "In relation to your soundings to ZWS  regarding SEPA's performance, can you please refrain from further discussions until the situation has been discussed with the Council. 

"We do not believe that representations to another government body (Quango) on the performance of a regulatory body reflects well on us (NES are effectively representing the Council to deliver the project) and could cause the Council future (wider) issue with SEPA, if they take exception to the complaint route that has been taken.

"As discussed at the last contracts meeting, if NES feel that SEPA's performance needs to be challenged then a meeting is to be convened with the Council to discuss the issue, the risks, the approach and who is best place to take it forward."

The floundering contract was hit by another wave of misfortune the following month, according to a document attributed to a consultant who also had membership of the Easter Langlee project team.

The report makes it clear it appears likely that the start on site for the advanced thermal treatment facility will be later than anticipated, because of delays in technology testing, and the knock-on effect this will have in securing the permit.from SEPA.

"The All Reasonable Endeavours (ARE) report indicates further slippage in technology trials, with the second 120 hour trial delayed until the week commencing October 28th 2013.", added the report.

"From a non-technical viewpoint, one's impression reading the report is that there are still some significant technical issues to be overcome before NES could be confident enough to finalise design of the ATT facility, let alone start building it."

 

And the consultant added to the growing negativity surrounding the project by writing: "Rather ominously, but not surprisingly in the light of the technology trial delay, page eight of the October ARE states that NES are currently carrying out an internal review of the delivery timetable, and 'then wishes to discuss the timetable with SBC. It is anticipated that additional time will be required to deliver the integrated facility.' .

"So we're still in the dark as to the likely start date on site, or commissioning date for the integrated for treatment facility, although in the October ARE NES state that they are targeting financial close for March 2014, commencing construction in April 2014 and service commencement in July 2015. It is in NES's financial interest to get the facilities up and running as early as possible so that they start becoming cash generative, but on the facts as presented this timetable looks optimistic."

As things turned out the new "timetable" outlined by NES proved to be remarkably optimistic. As we will report next SBC would soon receive a letter from New Earth warning of a potential two year delay to the entire scheme.

However, even faced with that devastating setback there is no evidence in the newly released files that SBC even contemplated pulling the plug on the contract in November 2013.