UKWIN is a network of 110 campaigners and campaign groups from throughout the UK. Many of these will be represented at the AGM, where they will listen to guest speaker Alan Watson deliver a presentation tracing the history of the anti-incineration movement.

Alan Watson will deliver a presentation tracing the history of the anti-incineration movement

Mr Watson, Director of Public Interest Consultants, is a recognised expert on waste treatment and disposal, and a former a member of Environmental Protection Advisory Committee for the Environment Agency in Wales. He previously worked for the Department of the Environment and was the senior specialist on Industry and Pollution for Friends of the Earth.

Participants will also be treated to a presentation from waste statistician Keith Kondakor about current trends in waste reduction and how to use waste data to support anti-incineration campaigning.

UKWIN’s National Coordinator, Shlomo Dowen, will explain how his High Court victory means campaigners can use the Audit Commission Act to reveal the financial arrangements behind large waste contracts.

This year’s AGM will be hosted by the local Chesterfield, Derbyshire and Derby groups.

Julie Harrington of Chesterfield Against Incineration (CAI) explains:

The event is particularly timely as a decision by Derbyshire County Council on whether to refuse planning permission for an incinerator in Chesterfield is imminent.

The planning application from the Wales-based firm Cyclamax, for a hazardous, commercial waste incinerator on Dunston Road, Chesterfield has generated an over-whelming level of public opposition from both residents and businesses, with over 11,000 objections to date, as well as opposition from every parish, town, borough and district council in the area.

The event will be an opportunity for local waste campaign groups to compare notes with others from throughout the UK. UKWIN’s National Coordinator, Shlomo Dowen, is looking forward to the event.

Gatherings like this one are always uplifting for those involved. They combine the serious work of campaigning and the joy of being with like-minded people.

According to Friends of the Earth’s Keith Kondakor:

Incineration is a false solution. Using the Earth’s finite resources more efficiently and cost-effectively demands more reuse, recycling and composting. Burning valuable materials is economic madness. We have just started on a recycling revolution in the UK that is diverting waste from landfill more quickly, more safely and less expensively than these costly, wasteful and unloved incinerator projects.

CAI’s Julie Harrington adds:

UKWIN has been a very valuable source of information and a great source of support for the campaign group, providing access to well-researched data and evidence on a range of safer and greener alternatives to gasification/incineration; experts on incineration processes and their environmental impacts; and case studies from councils across the country that have already ruled out incineration as an option in their waste strategies.

We encourage anyone interested in the subject to attend the AGM and benefit from the vast amount of knowledge and experience that UKWIN has gathered on these controversial and potentially health-damaging technologies.

Sheffield city council has approved plans to improve its kerbside recycling service at a cost of up to £3.1 million a year, despite needing to make cutbacks of up to £18 million in its overall spending for 2010/11.

The council approved proposals to increase both the frequency and range of materials included in its kerbside collections as part of a new waste strategy for 2009-2020 at a cabinet meeting last week (November 25 2009).

Commenting on the improvements, the council’s cabinet member for climate change and local environment, councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, comes close to admitting that Veolia’s Sheffield incinerator has held back the City’s recycling rates for years:

However, given that Sheffield has the lowest kerbside recycling service satisfaction rate of any major city and the rest of Yorkshire, we know that a transformation in this area is required…I’m confident that our plans will deliver this to ensure that we see a recycling revolution right across Sheffield.

The strategy reveals that, by introducing the changes, it aims to increase residents’ satisfaction with their kerbside collection service, as well as working towards achieving a 45% recycling rate by 2015.

Sheffield City Council’s Waste Strategy will add to the scramble for waste to burn in Sheffield’s incinerator:

By working with Veolia we will seek a joined up approach to sharing waste treatment facilities, including our Energy Recovery Facility, to maximise the carbon saving for municipal waste.

4.1.8 The current Planning Permission for the Energy Recovery Facility allows 10% of the 225,000 tonnes capacity of the facility to be imported from the neighbouring authorities of Rotherham and North East Derbyshire.
4.1.9 This current planning permission allows waste to be transported from a distance of 15.1 miles away (as the crow flies) from the Energy Recovery Facility. Other local authorities are producing municipal waste closer still to the Energy Recovery Facility, and taking some of this other municipal waste to the Energy Recovery Facility would further reduce the environmental impacts of transporting this waste for treatment.
4.1.10 With the decrease in household waste forecast for treatment at the Energy Recovery Facility as shown in figure 4.2 and allowing for 20,000 tonnes of municipal waste, around 8% of household arisings for Sheffield, the current 10% allowance for imported waste could be doubled without compromising the priority of Sheffield municipal waste through the [incineration] facility.

So, look out Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster, Worksop, and Chesterfield – Sheffield Veolia is turning to you to help keep the incinerator burning.

Also see: Did McDonald’s give Sheffield’s incinerator indigestion?

This UKWIN Update attempts to bring together just some of what has been happening since our previous update. Inevitably I will miss some important items, so please feel invited to add more information of interest by leaving a comment on the UKWIN website (below).

Global Day of Action
UKWIN is joining forces with campaigners around the globe who are organising a Global day of Action Against Incineration. For more details please contact Neil.

Cheshire
The government has approved plans to build a 95MW incinerator in Cheshire which is set to burn 600,000 tonnes of refuse-derived fuel a year. The decision is obviously a disappointment for all those who campaigned hard to prevent this permission from being granted. Due to the current economic climate, and to the lack of local authority contracts, the facility, although approved, may never be built. Watch this (sad) space…
Links:
http://www.letsrecycle.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=37&listcatid=217&listitemid=53154
and
http://www.runcornandwidnesweeklynews.co.uk/runcorn-widnes-news/runcorn-widnes-local-news/2009/08/20/mike-hall-mp-slams-ince-marshes-incinerator-plan-go-ahead-because-of-existing-ineoschlor-runcorn-plans-55368-24490218/
and
http://www.crewechronicle.co.uk/crewe-news/local-crewe-news/2009/08/19/middlewich-incinerator-protestors-demand-council-bosses-reject-plans-96135-24472513/

Veolia High Court
Veolia have taken legal action against their waste partner Nottinghamshire County Council. The case, involving the right of the public to see how public money is being spent on delivering public services, is being heard on Tuesday 25th August 2009 at the High Court.

WASTE COMPANY IN COURT BATTLE TO KEEP WASTE CONTRACT SECRET FROM RESIDENTS

A French-owned waste company is going to the High Court to try and prevent Nottinghamshire County Council making public details of its £850 million waste management contract and the invoices paid by the Council.

The full hearing of the Judicial Review is taking place after an interim injunction was obtained by Veolia Environmental after council officials agreed to release the information following a request by local resident Shlomo Dowen, of People Against Incineration [PAIN].

Mr Dowen is represented by lawyers from Friends of the Earth’s Rights & Justice Centre.

Information in the contract and the invoices will show how much money Veolia Environmental is charging the local council for each method of treatment (landfill, incineration, recycling, composting, etc.) and will help show whether or not the local authority is getting value for money.

Shlomo Dowen said:

Nottinghamshire residents have a right to seeing how tens of millions of pounds of our money is being spent, and our waste is being dealt with. This information must be made public. Veolia Environmental must not be allowed to keep this information secret.

Friends of the Earth’s executive director Andy Atkins said:

The law gives the public explicit rights to see this type of information precisely so that they can hold authorities to account on major issues such as this. Companies like Veolia that wish to take enormous amounts of public money must recognise that members of the public have an interest in ensuring that the money is well spent.

Mr Dowen has already accessed some information from the Council and has asked the District Auditor to investigate amount of money it is charging Nottinghamshire’s County Council in respect of landfill tax.

Veolia is also embroiled in another controversy with Nottinghamshire County Council over its plans to build an incinerator on a former Colliery site in Sherwood Forest. The company claims that local waste levels are expected to rise significantly in the coming years– a fact hotly disputed by PAIN, who point to evidence that Nottinghamshire’s waste levels have actually fallen.

Hearings for the Public Inquiry into the proposed Sherwood Forest Incinerator will begin on 6th October 2009 in Rainworth, near Mansfield. These hearings are expected to last for three weeks. PAIN is joined at the Inquiry by Newark and Sherwood District Council and Notts Wildlife Trust who also oppose Veolia’s incinerator plans.

Shocked in Shepshed
Residents of Shepshed in Northwest Leicestershire we shocked to learn of possible plans for an incinerator in their village. The plans for an incinerator near Shepshed have been put forward by Biffa. Biffa are one of three companies short-listed by the County Council to build a new facility to process the County’s waste. Leicester Friends of the Earth have backed local residents in their opposition to plans to build a giant waste incinerator near Shepshed. You can read more about this at:
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Fury-grows-incinerator-plan/article-1276006-detail/article.html
and
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Massive-waste-burner-planned-Leicestershire/article-1273645-detail/article.html
and
http://www.letsrecycle.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=37&listcatid=217&listitemid=53228

Emerging Global Anti-Covanta coalition
Campaigners from North America are joining with others faced with the prospect of a Covanta-run incinerator in locations around the world to share information and campaign tips. UKWIN is supporting this effort. If you would like to join this coalition, please contact paul@fluoridealert.org

Invergordon
“Controversial plans for a £43m waste incinerator in Invergordon have been rejected by Highland Council.” “Planners snubbed over Invergordon project…Company considers appeal…Highland town celebrates as waste plan thrown out…” “Highland Council chief executive Alistair Dodds is considering a plea from SNP opposition group leader John Finnie to launch an inquiry into his senior planners’ handling of the application.”
See
http://www.north-star-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/4964/Incinerator_plan_is_extinguished.html
and
http://www.highlandlibdems.org.uk/news/000155/thurso_welcomes_decision_to_throw_out_plan_for_incinerator_in_invergordon.html
and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8204937.stm

Perth
“Residents against the building of a waste incinerator in Perth believe the local council acted unlawfully when granting outline planning permission…Outline planning consent for the development was granted in 2006, but full details only emerged this year. The Grundon Waste Management plans for the £100m incinerator, which include a 260ft chimney, have attracted hundreds of objections. Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council hired planning lawyers to look into the matter.” “The community council turned to Roy Martin QC and advocate Stephen O’Rourke in their David versus Goliath battle to prevent English-based Grundon Waste Management creating a towering £100 million recycling plant on the Shore Road.”
See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8213662.stm
and
http://www.perthshireadvertiser.co.uk/perthshire-news/local-news-perthshire/perth-city/2009/08/21/community-council-reveal-incinerator-legal-hurdle-73103-24492774/

RAID – Residents Against Inappropriate Developments
In their August 2009 e-newsletter the newly formed RAID are announcing their plans for further public meetings to inform more people about the proposed developments associated with the Hatfield Power Park (Doncaster) and especially one known as the DEW Project. If you have not yet seen the presentation or know someone who has not seen it please come along on one of the dates below:
Thorne – 3rd September at the Assembly Rooms
Dunscroft – 9th September at St Lawrence Community Centre
Dunsville – 18th September at the Community Centre
Hatfield Woodhouse – 25th September in the Village Hall
Stainforth – 2nd October at the Resource Centre (Old Folks Centre)
All the meetings will start at 7.30pm.

Also, the Barnsley Doncaster and Rotherham (Dearne Valley) Joint Strategic Waste consultation is coming to Dunsville Community Centre. On Friday 4th September there will be a public consultation meeting at Dunsville Community Centre to discuss the suitability of Hatfield Power Park as a waste management site as part of the DPD process. There will be a display from 2pm until 5pm and then a presentation from 6pm until 8pm with questions and answers.

Please encourage anyone you know to visit the RAID website and sign the online petition.

Newcastle
An ongoing political row is rumbling on over the issue of the incineration of waste in Newcastle.
See:
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/the-environment/go-green-news/2009/06/20/controversial-debate-over-newcastle-incinerator-72703-23932252/

Crymlyn Burrows
There is news on the infamous Crymlyn Burrows Incinerator on the outskirts of Swansea. Neath Port Talbot Council has accepted a payout of £6.7 Million in a court case against the firm of consultants that advised them to go ahead with the plant. The local residents are also taking a class action suit against the incinerator for the odour problems it is causing. For those unfamiliar with the background story see the Swansea FoE website.

Jersey
“A damning new report on the euro rate incinerator fiasco has raised serious concerns about the management of the Treasury.”
See
http://www.thisisjersey.com/2009/08/10/incinerator-report-serious-concerns-over-treasury/

Kingston
KINGSTON AGAINST INCINERATION NETWORK
Networked to UK WIN – Networking Communities fighting Incineration
The last Kingston Council “consultation” workshop on Waste and last year’s Energy seminar did not reflect adequately input from local residents and there were various individual protests at the waste workshop. It is therefore very important that there is grassroots understanding and consensus on this before the waste consultation workshop on the 16th September to ensure that what we want is not manipulated into what we don’t want…For more info contact PennyKFOE@aol.com

A letter from the Co-ordinator of Colchester and NE Essex Friends of the Earth, Paula Whitney to her local Gazette Letters page:

Dear Editor,

Cllr Tim Young (6 Aug) has robustly defended Colchester council’s formal opposition to the Essex Waste Strategy last May when the coalition took control. Last autumn Colchester’s Cabinet formally opposed the county’s second bid for PFI funding since 2005. Well done!

Cllr Tina Dopson informed Defra that Colchester did not support the
bid. Our LibDem MP Bob Russell, many opposition councillors and campaigners told Defra and the Minister this, and that many thousands of Essex people have opposed MBT and incineration since 1999.

Since May 2006 waste PFI rules require bids to show that all relevant councils and the public ‘have been consulted and that there is broad
consensus’. Hence the 2008 trick public consultation, widely
condemned as misleading.

Colchester rather put a spoke in the last PFI bid by pulling out. If we can scupper the bid we will save Essex council taxpayers huge costs and recycle and compost more instead.

Now the surprise news has just hit the headlines (3 Aug) of a third
desperate attempt by ECC for costly PFI finance from Government. This one deftly includes Colchester as one of the councils supporting the bid as a member of the previous Essex waste ‘Partnership’. Pardon?

The ‘MBT’ plant for 351,000 tonnes a year at Basildon would shred and
compost ‘black bag’ waste in massive warehouses, reducing its weight
by a fifth. ECC officers said it may be landfilled or turned into polluting fuel pellets to burn in an incinerator on one of the sites.

Let’s hope Colchester council, our MP and some of us can move fast to
inform Defra and the Minister that neither they nor the Essex people
support the PFI bid. These 27.5 year contracts will cost the taxpayers huge sums to destroy our valuable resources.

And finally…
Music to our ears
Yet another anti-incinerator song has been composed. “It Was Madness” will be released on the 14th September. On this note UKWIN has been asked if there is anyone who would be able to help promote the single…

A 1-minute preview of the song can be heard at http://web2.nessmp3.com/bands/1327. There is a possibility it could be a National hit and with it massive exposure for the cause. The artist who wrote and performed the song is keen to do appearances, etc, however he won’t be able to work the ‘machine’ on his own. Are there any offers of help?

SAI (South Yorkshire Against Incineration, formerly Sheffield Against Incineration) presented Sheffield City Council with a special accolade: the ‘Dustbin of the UK’ award. The award comes in the form of a new statue for the city centre.

Photo of Sheffield’s Bronze Dustbin Award taken by Dr Vicki Shaw outside Sheffield Town Hall on Friday 25th July 2008 – photo is copyright of Dr Vicki Shaw

According to The Sheffield Star the Sheffield Green Party has voiced concerns about the environmental impact of more than 20 heavy lorries a day rumbling to the site – where waste is burned to produce energy to heat buildings around the city. “This proposal is in danger of making Sheffield the dustbin of South Yorkshire and we are one of the groups which have objected,” said Coun Bernard Little, one of the party’s three Central Ward members.

Colleague Coun Jillian Creasy added: “It’s true this waste would otherwise be landfilled, and that incineration with energy reclamation is better than landfill. But Veolia is not saving on landfill because it will simply transport the same amount of commercial waste, currently going to the incinerator, to a landfill site near Doncaster. We are also horrified that the Council is considering allowing Veolia to change how it operates even before it has consulted on or approved a new waste strategy”.

Criticism also came from nearby resident Jill Francis, who used to live in Hyde Park and is now one of the last tenants of Park Hill flats. “We make enough rubbish in Sheffield without importing it from other areas, and this will take jobs from people dealing with rubbish disposal in the other areas.”

Sheffield Council Labour group leader Councillor Jan Wilson said she wanted to ensure there would be no adverse impact on residents in her neighbouring Manor Castle ward, and suggested lorry journeys to the incinerator could be made at night to avoid clogging up busy roads. A decision on the planning application is due to be made by Sheffield Council’s planning board before the start of September.

Jeff Rice from SAI said:

“It is disgraceful that lovely Sheffield should be turned into the dustbin of the region. We are supposed to be a ‘green’ city. This proposal to bring in extra rubbish to burn in our city centre should be rejected. Chesterfield, Barnsley and Doncaster already have good recycling rates, far superior to Sheffield in fact. They need to build on this success with further recycling and other waste treatment methods that are greener than incineration like Anaerobic Digestion (AD). AD attracts more government subsidy in the form of ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates) than incinerators which makes them more financially attractive options to councils. They should aspire to more than dumping their leftovers on Sheffield.”

“On the plus side, the new Lib Dem council have made noises about bringing in kerbside collections to boost Sheffield’s recycling. SAI thinks that such a scheme would need to collect glass, food and drink cans and plastic bottles. In addition to this the Lib Dems are expanding the garden waste collection scheme, which is a good move. If Sheffield could catch up with the recycling rates of Barnsley, Doncaster and Chesterfield, that’d be great. If we all recycle more, this starts to starve the incinerator, showing how unsustainable incineration is.”

“If the Lib Dem council really want to be green, they should throw out this planning application to bring more waste into Sheffield. Our ‘Dustbin of the UK’ award will make a nice gold statue for the city and will remind the council just how ‘green’ it really is every time they look out of the window. The Lib Dems lost control of the council in 2002 over the incinerator. Now we’ve a new new Lib Dem council. This is their chance to show us what reformed characters they are and rejected this application.”

As part of the action SAI collected about 150 signed and addressed objection letters to the proposal. You can register your objection to the application to burn more waste in Sheffield via: http://planning.sheffield.gov.uk

Veolia’s admission calls into question any incinerator operators’ ability to rely on topping up with commercial and industrial waste. As householders continue to reduce, reuse and recycle, an increasing number of incinerator operators appear to be chasing a diminishing quantity of household waste.

In a letter to Sheffield City Council, dated 13^th May 2008, Veolia’s consultants RPS state that: “…it is evident that waste arisings have not grown as quickly as was assumed [in 2002]…Recycling rates have exceeded projections…”.

The McDonald’s connection was introduced when in 2007 the multi-national fast food retailer struck a deal with Veolia to incinerate waste from eleven McDonald’s outlets in Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley. Could it have been the high-calorie polystyrene and fatty food waste that caused problems for the Sheffield incinerator? Has the composition of Sheffield’s trade waste changed as a result of the deal? Apparently so!

Sheffield City Council Planners asked Veolia to explain why in 2002 Veolia argued that a projected 80,000 tonne per annum shortfall could be filled with commercial waste, when now “it is now being argued that this level of commercial waste is a problem”. RPS replied: “The composition [of] commercial wastes today do not reflect the circumstances which prevailed in 2001”.

Local campaigners South Yorkshire Against Incineration (SAI), along with Sheffield Green Party activists, are gearing up to oppose Veolia’s application. Watch this space! Or even better, contact the UKWIN Coordinator to find out how you can help this campaign.