AN investigation into the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) by Michael Gove’s department has been dropped.

The NLWA – the group behind the £1.2billion redevelopment of Edmonton’s incinerator – has been at the heart of an environmental controversy since 2021 when it handed Spanish construction giant Acciona the contract to rebuild its waste-burning facility as the original one, built in the 1970s, is coming to the end of its life.

Mr Gove’s levelling up department became involved in investigating the decision to appoint Acciona after Chingford MP Iain Duncan Smith suggested there was evidence the NLWA was wasting public money and its incinerator – which is due to expand to burning 700,000 tonnes of rubbish annually – was a danger to public health.

In a blow for campaigners, a letter from Mr Gove’s officers to the NLWA last month said their engagement has now concluded, “and the department will not be taking any further action at this time”.

The department called on the NLWA to allow itself to be assessed by the Local Government Association and “encouraged” it to “make public [any] information that would aid public understanding and scrutiny of your past and future decision making”.

They did not look at whether the incinerator affected public health.

Dorothea Hackman of Stop the Edmonton Incinerator Now! said the NLWA had been “given a get out of jail free card” and called its decision to continue to burn rubbish in the heart of a poor community “environmental racism”. She demanded they now make public the reasoning behind their decision to grant Acciona the contract, in a process that had just one bidder.

Calling for a halt on building work, she added: “We want them to look at pre-sorting and recycling and have a proper recycling facility where everything is sorted and recycled, which would generate jobs and help the environment.”