9 November 2009
Essex Green Party is calling on Essex County Council to change its waste policy with the news that the authority has obtained £100 million in PFI funding.
Cllr. James Abbott, Co-ordinator of Essex Green Party said
"The PFI award comes as no surprise as Essex County Council have been trying to get it for years and after several failed attempts now have their PFI.
What is important now is what they do with the money.
We note that no-where in the Essex County Council news release does it mention incineration of waste, yet as things stand that is set to play a large part in their plans, despite the residents of Essex having strongly opposed incineration in the consultation on the Essex Waste Plan.
Between 40% and 50% of household waste in Essex could end up being burnt, along with large quantities of commercial and industrial wastes after only limited processing - this is something that the County Council are not telling residents. The Rivenhall Airfield regional waste plant, which ECC strongly supported at the recent Inquiry, would burn 360,000 tonnes of waste per year, with trucks bringing waste in from across Essex as well as from London and counties around the capital."
Essex Green Party totally agrees on the need for facilities to treat waste. However, the County Council remains obsessed with waste being treated in very large centralised plants, probably to be run by multinational companies. The Greens support instead the more sustainable option of a network of district scale facilities on existing industrial areas treating waste locally. This would provide stronger local links and support from communities, would provide local jobs and would encourage local enterprise. It would not involve incineration and would also deliver much greater carbon savings than the County Council plan.
The Green Party is encouraged that there are planning applications now pending for just such district scale plants and one of them, at Halstead, is exactly the sort of plant, treating food waste to produce compost and genuinely green energy, that should be being promoted. Green Councillors in Braintree District will be watching very closely to see that the County Council treats such applications totally fairly given its overt support for large centralised sites.
The previous PFI bid, which the County Council abandoned without notice or consultation earlier this year, included the Rivenhall Airfield greenfield site. But the current PFI just approved no longer does and is based only on Basildon. In addition, the proposal from the applicants for the Rivenhall site to treat 100% commercial and industrial wastes would rule out PFI funding, which has to be used for treating household waste. So the granting of the PFI cannot be taken as a boost for the Rivenhall development.
Cllr. James Abbott added
"We know that the Rivenhall Airfield Incinerator is still a gleam in the County Council's eyes, as was very evident to those attending the recent Inquiry where the County Council actively supported the application, in total disregard to the overwhelming objections of local residents, organisations and councils.
We suspect that ECC may try to secure Basildon first as an MBT plant and then Rivenhall at a later date. But whatever their tactics, the Greens will continue to work with local residents and groups to secure a much more sustainable waste management system than that envisaged by Essex County Council. We believe that should include much higher recycling rates, with the aim of at least 70% by 2020 and the prevention of waste creation.
In the last 5 years, landfill in Essex has fallen by 25%. Recycling rates are rising strongly - reaching 43% countywide last year. Thanks to the excellent efforts of local residents and local district and boroughs, it is now proven that we can reduce landfill fast without huge centralised waste factories".
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