THE clock is ticking today on Guernsey’s landfill lifespan after the States agreed to an independent inquiry on an energy-from-waste plant. Scott Ogier said that the decision to overturn September’s vote for the £80m. plant would buy the States some time.

But opponents of Deputy Ogier’s requete argued that the vote had simply cost the States millions – and lost years of space at Mont Cuet.

The States has already agreed that the quarry would be its last landfill site.

But last September, the House was told that there was just seven years’ tipping space left there at current disposal levels.

With an energy-from-waste plant, volume was set to reduce tenfold, leaving a future life of 70 years. Each year of delay takes 10 years off that life, the Environment Department said.

Environment minister Bernard Flouquet said he was concerned about the future prospects of landfill, especially if the review dragged on.

‘In two or three years’ time, we will be in a very critical state because of the length of time it takes for these things to be brought together.’

Treasury and Resources minister Lyndon Trott said that the eventual outcome of the project was now likely to exceed £100m.

‘My previous experience of public-sector engineering projects leads me to the conclusion that any future deals will result in significant additional cost to our island,’ he said.

‘An awful lot of rapid developments will need to occur in the waste-management industry for anything other than a mass-burn incinerator, with justifiable recycling alongside it, not to be the correct solution for Guernsey.’

Deputy Ogier’s campaign, launched as he stood for election in St Sampson’s, had generated considerable support inside and outside of the House.

‘It is essential that the independent panel is constructed as soon as possible so it can look at the alternatives,’ he said.

‘Those include the possibility of shipping our waste to an incinerator in another jurisdiction as a short-term measure to buy us some time. I would rather use an incinerator for a few years, while we wait for other technologies to emerge, than for 25 years.’

Chief Minister Laurie Morgan was disappointed at the vote.

Deputy Flouquet said that members supporting the requete ‘had a democratic right to be wrong’.