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Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and two neighbouring councils have worked for five years on a replacement for the Whitley incinerator in Coventry.
Yet SMBC this week agreed to pull out of the plan, citing its high cost. Coventry and Warwickshire county councils are expected to do the same this week.
It has spent £400,000 planning the scheme over the last five years, with £1.3m coming from the other councils.
Councillors made the move after a council-commissioned study said the existing plant could last to 2040 with £60m investment – not 2020 as thought when planning began.
A council report said: “This assessment is clearly different from the results of the earlier (2005) engineering study, on which the decision to proceed with the procurement of a new solution was based.”
Yet it said abandoning the plan ‘represents far better value for money’ as it would have been built under a deal where a firm builds the burner and ‘mortgages’ it back to the councils.
This ‘private finance initiative’ would see the councils pay £1bn on a £129m building. The councils agreed to pursue this option 12 months ago.
Yet council control changed from Conservative to Liberal Democrat and Labour hands at elections on May 6.
They last week agreed not to proceed because of impending spending cuts, meaning it would be more difficult to plug a yearly £2.2m funding gap.
It said keeping the burner would allow time for dividends from a company set up to run the facility and to consider alternatives.
Solihull Green Party spokesperson Chris Williams said: "It was the Green Party who pointed out the ludicrous cost of the plans back in 2008.
"I am glad that others have now seen the light that incinerators are expensive, dirty and unncessary and have finally stopped wasting any more of taxpayers' money on this scheme.
"The £1.7 million spent so far has been lost and could have been spent on vital frontline public services".
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