In the past 18 months, 37 Wakefield projects have received massive cash injections from Welbeck Tip s landfill tax including:
- £600,000 for Normanton swimming pool
-£300,000 for Normanton Library s environment centre
- £55,000 for repairs at Kirkthorpe St Peter s Church
- £50,000 for the restoration of Wakefield Cathedral
- £50,000 for Normanton town centre.
Under the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme, Wakefield Council bosses pay £12 tax for every ton of the district s waste dumped on the site. Other councils which use the site to dump refuse from their areas also pay a levy.
Waste Recycle Environment redistributes 20 per cent of this tax in the community.
Welbeck documents were released at the request of Paul Dainton, chairman of Residents Against Toxic Scheme, under the Data Protection Act. They revealed the tip operators should have a programme which involved developing dialogue with key opinion formers .
Mr Dainton claims the list of schools, churches and worthwhile community projects are these key opinion formers and that they are being swayed by the share-out.
Stephen Timms, former Financial Secretary to the Treasury, admitted to a House of Commons Select Committee on the Environment: There is no doubt at all that the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme is very popular with the landfill operators.
It does allow them to win substantial positive publicity for themselves.
The Environment Agency issued public statements to MPs in Wakefield citing this as the amount of rubbish being dumped but Mr Dainton claims the Environment Agency told him that the figure was an error when he confronted them with evidence to the contrary.
A total of £1,938,645 has been paid to organisations in Wakefield since November 2000.
A spokesman for Wakefield council said: Every disposal authority has got to pay landfill tax. We don t consider cheaper waste disposal options like incineration because they are less environmentally friendly.
We decided it was only fair that a large amount of the recovered tax should be distributed in the Normanton and Altofts areas because they are closest to the site.
Waste Recycling Group own the site on the River Calder. Yorkshire Water are the biggest shareholders in this company and Wakefield council own 20 per cent of the shares.
Waste Recycling Group managing director Paul Tomes denied the shareout was a ploy to defuse protests against the tip.
He said: Landfill tax is a scheme set up by the government and we are just implementing the law. If we didn t put money back into the community we would be very harshly criticised.
Eastmoor Community Project received £45,000 to landscape the central terminus in Eastmoor. Trees and flowers were planted and the whole area was environmentally improved.
Project leader Peter Hunter said: If I was given any hard evidence toxic waste at Welbeck, I would be very concerned but nothing has been proved yet so I am very happy for the Eastmoor community to benefit from the money.