Councils Try To Force Through Waste Incineration In Court
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Waste |
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Incineration |
Despite years of talk, consultation and consultants’ reports about the right way to deal with waste, West London Waste Authority (WLWA) seems determined to force through incineration.
WLWA is taking the Mayor Ken Livingstone to court because he has tried to stop them placing a contract for incineration and, instead, use less wasteful and more environmentally friendly methods of waste disposal.
The architect of the incineration and the court case is Mike Nicholls, head of WLWA. He has pushed weak and ineffective councillors into spending taxpayers’ money trying to force through incineration that we don’t want.
See press releases below which explain all, including names and pictures of councillors who want to waste our resources and pollute our air.
Press release (Mar 07)
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Photocall at Court |
Incineration In The Dock
Members of Harrow, Ealing and Richmond Friends of the Earth attended the incineration case on 2nd March. They took part in a photocall at the Royal Court of Justice along with Jenny Jones, member of the Greater London Authority. Pictures attached.
WLWA challenged the Mayor of London's right to stop them pursuing a contract to burn household waste. WLWA believe they should be allowed to consider the Lakeside incinerator at Colnbrook near Slough as a suitable solution. This position is contrary to the Mayor's desire to treat London's waste locally.' See notes for more information.
Margaret Salasidis, Friends of the Earth waste campaigner in Richmond, said “WLWA still has time to do the right thing and find suitable sites within West London for the treatment and disposal of our household waste whilst pursuing recycling and waste reduction with renewed vigour.”
The case lasted 3 hours and at the end the judge announced that he would give a written judgment. However, no date was given for the judgement.
Nic Ferriday, West London Friends of the Earth, commented “Whichever way the judgement goes, it is disgraceful that the Mayor had to intervene and that WLWA brought the court case. Instead of using taxpayers’ money in court, WLWA should be spending it on finding responsible and environmentally friendly ways of disposing of waste.”
Prevous Press Release (Feb 07)
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Cllr Eileen Kinnear (Harrow, Conservative) |
Councils Try To Force Through Waste Incineration In Court
West London Waste Authority (WLWA) is fighting Mayor Ken Livingstone over incineration. The Authority, which works on behalf of the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Richmond [Note 1], wants to incinerate the boroughs’ domestic waste, while Ken Livingstone is trying to stop it.
The Authority wants to place a contract which would allow 110,000 tonnes pa of residual waste to be burned. This would almost certainly be at Grundon’s massive incinerator at Colnbrook, just over the London border. The waste from domestic ‘black bags’, may contain large amounts of recyclable or compostable material. Ken Livingstone has issued a ‘Direction’ opposing the contract [Note 2], and in response WLWA is taking him to court. [Note 3]
The initial hearing is on Friday 23 Feb in the High Court and WLWA have set aside £100,000 for the case.
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Cllr Andrew Retter (Hillingdon, Conservative) |
Bernard Burns, waste campaigner for West London Friends of the Earth, said “We are outraged at West London Waste Authority wasting council taxpayers' money trying to resist the Mayor's Direction. Instead of wasting our money on court cases, they should be using it to reduce the amount of waste and dispose of the remainder by clean methods.”
Friends of the Earth (FOE) is opposed to incineration because:
* It emits toxic gases and particles
* It produces highly toxic ‘fly ash’
* It burns material which could be recycled
* It produces huge quantities of greenhouse gases
FOE believes that the all material that can be recycled or composted should be removed from mixed waste, meaning
that minimal amounts of material need to be landfilled or incinerated. [Note 4]
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Cllr Will Brooks (Ealing, Conservative) |
After years of warnings, the government is now forcing waste authorities to act by introducing fines for excess landfill. It is the fear of fines that has sparked WLWA into trying to place a contract allowing incineration.
Bernard Burns commented: “WLWA is entirely responsible for this fiasco. It has known for 5 years that constraints on landfill were coming. They still have 3 years or more before there is any chance of fines for excess landfill. We call upon WLWA to call off this wasteful action and use their time and money to set up clean and economical disposal routes.”
Notes
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Cllr Irwin Van Colle (Brent, Conserviatve) |
1. The councillors who control WLWA are:
Brent - Cllr Irwin Van Colle (Conservative)
Ealing – Cllr Will Brooks (Conservative)
Harrow – Cllr Eileen Kinnear, Chair of WLWA (Conservative)
Hillingdon – Cllr Andrew Retter (Conservative)
Hounslow – Cllr Andrew Dakers (LibDem)
Richmond – Cllr Martin Ellengorn (LibDem)
The Chief Executive of WLWA is Mike Nicholls and the Technical Advisor is David Streeter.
2. The Direction has 3 parts:
a) Mixed waste to be pre-sorted to remove recyclable material (ie not send unsorted waste for incineration)
b) Use state-of-the-art equipment for limiting emissions (the Colnbrook incinerator is not state-of-the-art)
c) Use ‘Combined Heat and Power (CHP) technologies (if any residual waste is burned).
3. The contract wanted by WLWA does not actually mention incineration. It is ‘technologically neutral’; in theory any method of disposal could be proposed by bidders. But in reality it is all about incineration as the committee papers and discussions at WLWA meetings make clear.
4. Cleaner, greener and less costly waste technologies are available. For example, Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) is popular in parts of Europe as it encourages maximum recycling of waste through a system of sifting and sorting. Black bag waste is sorted to ensure removal of maximum recyclables, extraction of metals etc and is then treated by drying/anaerobic digestion to produce compost and landfill cover. Residual waste is rendered inert through composting and is ultimately safe to landfill.