A community group which lost a High Court ruling to Gloucestershire County Council over a £600million waste incinerator contract has brought in a QC to mount a legal challenge.

High Court Judge Russen QC’s decided Community R4C could not progress to a full trial last month, and it is now starting the process to launch an appeal and crowdfunding campaign.

Community R4C claimed a new contract for the Javelin Park facility in Gloucester, near junction 12 of the M5, was awarded unlawfully to its operator UBB four years ago.

The county council has always denied this and said it ran a competitive process within the law.

The High Court decided that Community R4C, which had been working on a cheaper, greener waste processing plant, would not have qualified to bid for the new contract in 2016 as it was not an “economic operator”.

The group disputed Judge Russen QC’s decision that it is not an “economic operator” and will appeal against that call by this Friday (August 7).

They’ve brought in Parishil Patel QC, who it said is one of the country’s top barristers in procurement law.

Sue Oppenheimer, co-chair of Community R4C said: “We are applying to the Court of Appeal on the basis there has been a critical error of law in the approach taken by the High Court.

“The effect of this is ultimately to deprive potential bidders, Community R4C in this case, of proper access to legal remedy in the event of breaches of procurement law by directly awarding contracts without open, competitive tender.

“If our appeal is eventually upheld, the impact will be nationwide. It would establish new legal precedent which will ensure more open Government tenders. Councils will no longer be able to dismiss community-supported, environment-protecting solutions simply to favour big business.”

The county council revealed in December 2018 the project’s cost had risen from £500m to £633m.

The authority signed a contract with Urbaser Balfour Beatty (UBB) for the scheme in 2013.

In 2018 it was told it must reveal some parts of a previously redacted report, released under Freedom of Information rules, which the authority had said was “commercially sensitive”.

It released the details on December 21, revealing it will cost £112 per tonne to burn the waste, which it said represented “value for money”.

When the plans were first proposed, the county council said the incinerator would save local taxpayers £100m over 25 years and power 25,000 homes.