A West Drayton resident has criticised Hillingdon Council after it has emerged the authority has paid over £7m to a recycling company it has issued an enforcement order against.
The council has had a contract with the firm Powerday to run the civic amenity site in Tavistock Road since 2010 as well as for waste disposal skips and removal pf rubble from council operations, and has paid millions of pounds to the company.
But Powerday's recycling site in West Drayton had not been given planning approval by the council and an enforcement notice was issued to stop the operation being run 24 hours a day.
Hillingdon Council has responded saying the council has three contracts with Powerday including the monthly civic amenity site but that no waste is processed in West Drayton.
A planning application made by the firm to build a new recycling centre on the site was rejected by Hillingdon Council in June.
'Despite thousands of complaints from residents'
Swan Road resident Vladimir Matveev said: "How is it possible that the council had awarded a multi-million pound contract to a company that had no planning permission to take the waste to the site?"
"Despite receiving thousands of complaints from residents, the council all this time has been paying millions of pounds to Powerday for bringing their waste to West Drayton.
"This demonstrates how the council, once again, operates against the interests of residents and has been using underhand techniques to award contracts, knowing full well that Powerday had no planning permission to be in West Drayton."
Peaked at £2.5m
Figures revealed in a Freedom of Information request submitted by Mr Matveev showed the total amounts being paid from the council to Powerday.
The cost paid from the council to the company in contract increased by more than five times between 2013 and 2015, reaching a peak of £2.5m.
In 2016 the total amount paid by the council is £1.5m.
| Year | Amount paid by the council (including VAT) |
| 2010 | £605,411.89 |
| 2011 | £297,718.50 |
| 2012 | £220,399.07 |
| 2013 | £528,701.44 |
| 2014 | £1,774,571.19 |
| 2015 | £2,581,201.28 |
| 2016 | £1,556,352.69 |
Hillingdon Council earlier this year threw out a controversial planning application from Powerday to build a new recovery and recycling building, storage bays and associated parking on the Tavistock Road site.
The application was unanimously refused because of the development's impact on roads and air quality.
Powerday has now applied to the government's Environment Agency for a licence to allow it to carry out all the activity set out in the planning application.
Illegally stored waste
The firm was also caught up in a major controversy earlier this year when it was fined £1.2m by the Environment Agency for depositing and storing 17,000 tonnes of waste illegally in Willesden and Oxfordshire.
Councillor for the West Drayton ward, Jan Sweeting, said: "This is of course very concerning to local residents.
"Once again it would seem that Powerday are exerting all of its significant financial clout to ensure that the Coal Yard site in Yiewsley will become a waste site of significant size.
"We know from experience its going to cause even more problems if the extended licence is granted."
Responding to the news that the council had a contract worth millions of pounds with Powerday, Cllr Sweeting added: "It seems a funny old world that a council can be giving a contract and at the same time looking to take out enforcement action against the company."
A spokesperson for Hillingdon Council said: "Planning consent has not been given by Hillingdon Council for the proposed waste processing facility in West Drayton and no such waste operation exists.
"The council has three contracts with Powerday, as a compliant local provider of waste management services.
"One contract is for the provision of waste disposal skips at various council sites across the borough.
"Another contract is to provide and run a popular monthly civic amenity site in West Drayton for the benefit of residents in the south of the borough. This facility is something that residents have told the council they wish to continue.
"The third, and main, contract with Powerday is to receive rubble and bulky waste from various council operations and to process this for recycling.
"In each case the waste is sent for processing at the Powerday waste management facility in Wembley, which is a fully compliant site."
Members of the public can give their opinions on Powerday's application until September 15 via the Environment Agency by emailing pscpublicresponse@environment-agency.gov.uk and using the application number EPR/LB3530RA/V002.
getwestlondon has approached Hillingdon Council and Powerday for comment.
