Protesters celebrate as judge gives green light to Calderdale waste incinerator judicial review
The group is fighting to prevent Calder Valley Skip Hire from operating an incinerator
Hello and welcome to The Calderdale Lead.
I hope you’ve all had a good week.
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Calderdale Digest
🎒Each external – non-state school – specialist place for a Calderdale child with special educational needs and disabilities is costing the council an average £74,000 a year, audit councillors were told.
As of November 2025, there are now 2,900 children in the borough with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) with increasing numbers putting pressure on places in state funded special schools.
In turn, this is driving an increase in children being placed in independent specialist provision (ISP), according to a report to Calderdale Council’s Audit Committee.
As an indication of how demand nationwide is seeing more children placed in these privately-run establishments, the number of Calderdale children in independent specialist provision in March 2023 was 121 and the cost of that provision was nearly £6 million that year.
In March 2025 there were 217 children in ISP and the cost of that provision was £14 million.
Councillors were told the average placement costs for ISPs in 2023 were £49,000 per place, but at the end of the 2024-25 financial year this was £64,000.
By November, average costs have risen further to currently around £74,000 per ISP placement, according to the report.
⚽Halifax Town got back to winning ways in style yesterday with a convincing 4-0 win over Braintree at The Shay.
The victory - Town’s biggest of the season - came courtesy of goals from Will Smith, Josh Hmami, Will Harris and Jevon Mills.
And boss Adam Lakeland said he was delighted with the performance.
He told the Halifax Courier: "I thought we were the better team throughout, I thought we played with a good level of control, patience and discipline, which we knew we’d have to do against them.
"They don’t generally concede many goals, and they’re quite a stubborn, rigid team to play against, they’re experienced and got the dark arts.
“In terms of the plan and how we wanted the game to look, I thought the players executed it brilliantly and we had that ruthlessness to us, particularly in that last 20 minutes, and I thought we thoroughly deserved that convincing win.”
Incinerator permit decision ‘can go to Judicial Review’
By John Greenwood
Campaigners against a controversial incinerator operating in Calderdale are reporting they have been given permission by the courts to pursue a Judicial Review into a key council permitting decision.
The Benbow Group, which is fighting to prevent Calder Valley Skip Hire from operating an incinerator at the company’s Belmont, Sowerby Bridge, site said the case for a review put by a claimant can progress to Judicial Review.
The decision was made by a Judge sitting at Leeds yesterday (Dec 4).
“The case for Judicial Review was made by the claimant’s barrister Richard Harwood KC and was successful. The claimant can now progress to a Judicial Review,” says the group.
The company has planning permission to install a small waste incineration plant (SWIP) at the site but also needs an environmental permit to operate it, with the latter granted by Calderdale Council last year.
One group member attending the court said the Judge recommended that the decision go to a full Judicial Review, “to a loud gasp from members of the public at the back of the court.”
Malcolm Powell, on behalf of the group, which has raised funds to help with costs of pursuing the case, is the claimant.
Mr Powell’s calling for a Judicial Review of the decision saw a High Court judge refuse permission for a review this summer but, helped by fundraising support, he made the appeal heard yesterday.
He has successfully pursued a Judicial Review over an earlier granting of a permit, the grant of which which was effectively eventually overturned by a Planning Inspector.
A complicated history has seen Calderdale Council refuse planning permission for the incinerator, and that decision being overturned on appeal to the planning inspectorate.
However, companies also have to have an environmental permit to run the incinerator, and following the company’s initial 2021 application objectors went to law and won the right to a Judicial Review of the council Cabinet’s decision to grant the permit.
After this the permit was quashed, following which the status of the permit application was deemed to be “undetermined” and the company appealed the non-determination.
But Planning Inspector John Woolcock, citing risk to health, which is a main concern of objectors, dismissed this after an inquiry, effectively refusing it.
However, as the law stands companies can lodge further applications, and this second application was granted by council officers late last year.
The incinerator has been opposed by campaigners and cross-party councillors and MPs.
Affected ward councillors Dot Foster, Adam Wilkinson – Cllr Wilkinson is a Cabinet member – and Cllr Leah Webster have posted on the campaign group’s social media welcoming that the latest decision can go to Judicial Review.
That’s it for this edition, thanks for reading.
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Until Wednesday, have a great week…
Andrew