The First Special Report of the Chairman of Committees, House of Lords and the Chairman of Ways and Means, House of Commons on the Rookery South (Resource Recovery Facility) Order 2011 was published on 1 May 2012.
The purpose of the report is to announce and explain the decisions about which petitions are proper to be received, following the period for petitioning against the Order which closed on 19 December 2011 and the hearing on 8 March 2012.
As well as determining which petitioners are able to appear before a joint committee of the two Houses, the Chairmen’s Report raises two aspects of the statutory framework under which Parliament considers Special Procedure Orders. It calls on the Government to take action to deal with the anomalies in that framework before laying any further such Orders.
The next stage in the process is a 21 day Resolution period. If either the House of Lords or the House of Commons were to resolve to annul the Order during the period ending on 27 May 2012 it would become void and no further proceedings would be taken on it. If no annulment is agreed by either House the Order will proceed to a joint committee of both Houses for consideration.
The deadline for the deposit of counter-petitions in the Private Bill Office of either House (in relation to the amendments in petitions 35, 37 and 39) is 5:00pm on 21 May 2012.
On 8 March the Chairmen heard evidence from the agents representing both the petitioners and the memorialists. Follow this link for the corrected minutes of evidence + correspondence (
PDF 664 KB) of that meeting. They are considering the evidence and will report their decision, with reasons, to the House of Lords and the House of Commons in due course.
The Chairmen's hearing will take place at 10:15am on Thursday 8 March 2012 in the Thatcher Room, Portcullis House (entrance 4 on this map ( PDF 507 KB)).
At this hearing the Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords and the Chairman of Ways and Means in the House of Commons will consider the 39 petitions and the 78 memorials deposited against those petitions. They will then report to the House of Lords and the House of Commons whether some or all of the petitions should be considered by a Joint Committee appointed for that purpose. The hearing is open to the public.
On 10 January 2012 the Government and Covanta Rookery South Limited (the applicant for the Order) each deposited an objection to every petition (each objection is known as a "memorial").
The petitioning period ended at 5pm Monday 19 December 2011 and 39 petitions were deposited against the order.