A tip in the north of the island will remain open beyond its original closing date because the government has failed to make progress on its planned new site.
The government wants to create a fully engineered new site for construction waste at Turkeyland in Malew - and it had hoped to also use that site as an interim facility - but no detailed plans have been submitted.
It is an embarrassment for the minister, who is MHK for Ayre and Michael, the Keys constituency in which the tip is located.
He has previously stuck to a December 31 deadline for closure, while previously refusing to publish the advice that led to that decision.
And only days before the U-turn, in response to a question about whether the Bride tip was still going to close at the end of next week, Mr Baker told Tynwald that the Department for Infrastructure was waiting for a decision on an interim replacement for the tip, following a ’quick quote’.
But when Daphne Caine (Garff) raised the issue again as an urgent question in the Keys, asking what interim arrangements were in place for the disposal of construction waste from January 1, he had to admit that Wright’s Pit North would remain open.
’The results of the quick quote have now been analysed,’ he said. ’They have indicated that there is no suitable on-island facility, which is both affordable and compliant, with all the relevant approvals and licences.
’The department has therefore determined that, in the light of this information, there will be a requirement to seek approval to extend the operating life of Wright’s Pit North as an interim measure.’
He said the quick quote responses revealed that it would cost £936,000 to use an interim facility and that cost could not be justified.
The DoI would ensure ’all the necessary approvals are in place’ to allow operations to continue at Wright’s Pit North, he said
Mr Baker admitted: ’I fully appreciate this is not the option that I had identified in earlier debates on this issue.
’Given the results of the quick quote exercise, it is now the only feasible option available to the department, which will, in compliance with the waste strategy, provide a safe disposal route for these materials for the immediate period, thus providing much-needed certainty and clarity for the instruction sector.’
He insisted the DoI was committed to developing a ’fully engineered, strategic waste facility’ elsewhere in the island to be operational with 18 months, at which point Wright’s Pit North would be closed and the land restored.
Asked to identify the site the department had in mind, he said it was Turkeyland.
Mrs Caine welcomed the ’a commonsense’ decision to extend the use of Wright’s Pit but branded the DoI ’dysfunctional’.
’It does beg the question, why was this left to the last-minute when I believe planning permission for the disposal facility at Wright’s Pit North was extended to the end of this year to enable the department to provide that long-term solution to problematic construction waste?’ she said.
’Surprise, surprise, there is nowhere suitable.’
The minister insisted a replacement landfill site remained a government commitment, but it had not been possible to submit a planning application.
But he accepted: ’It is unsatisfactory.’
The quick quote process began in November, he said, and closed on December 11, with quotes received from three companies.
But none of them came up with an option at a suitable price.
He hit back at Mrs Caine’s criticism.
’The department is not dysfunctional but it has, however, got itself in a situation here that is less than ideal.’
The minister pledged Wright’s Pit North would be open when the construction industry swings back into action in January. He said planners had deemed it acceptable to continue to use the site while a new application was made for continued use of the tip.