Newcastle's independent councillors are calling for an external review of the city's proposed organics recycling plant at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre.
Council voted 6-4 in favour of the $24 million facility at last week's meeting which would see 900,000 tonnes of food and garden organics diverted from landfill over 25 years.
Council awarded a tender to Victorian-based Barpa Pty Ltd, which has designed 120 composting facilities worldwide. However, Barpa's tender was the most expensive proposal, costing ratepayers $7 million more than the cheapest bid.
It's understood Barpa's tender was chosen because it would provide a fully enclosed facility which would avoid the odour issues experienced by Lake Macquarie's open-air organics recycling facility.
However, independent councillors want the tender process scrutinised, saying approval of the project included a stipulation that preference must be given to local companies when it comes to building the facility.
Independent councillor John Church says they weren't given a cost benefit analysis prior to last week's vote which would've shown if the chosen project provided ratepayers with the best value-for-money, and there are also concerns about the lack of consultation with the community.
"Some residents probably don't realise that this facility will be built within 700 metres of the homes at Fletcher. There are two major risks with an organic waste facility. The first is that they produce odour and also concerns over property values are raised. The other issue is if we don't get the composition of this material right, there will be no market for it and this business plan hasn't shown us who the customers are, where they might be, and estimates of revenue are very very low," he said.
