Friends of the Earth say rubbish incineration breaks agreed strategy
Open letter from Friends of the Earth: "Are our councillors sleepwalking towards long term incineration of our waste? At the last meeting of the West London Waste Authority, the director told councillors that a new waste disposal contract is needed, to begin by 2010. He said a draft contract had been written, with a fifteen year duration.
He also told councillors that if they were to advertise this contract now, there would probably be only one bidder, Grundon, who are building an incinerator in Colnbrook, Slough. Councillors listened to all this, then decided to notify the Mayor of London that they plan to go ahead and advertise a contract.
But this contract would go against the new waste strategy that they've just agreed. The strategy sets out a two stage process: the first stage is to provide waste disposal between 2010-2013, allowing time for stage two to be developed, for waste disposal 2013-2020 and beyond. This later stage would benefit from improvements in technology and the law that happen in the meantime, enabling us to reduce waste and recycle more of the valuable resources contained in it.
So what's happened to this two stage process? If we commit to a fifteen year contract with Grundon, we could be stuck with burning our rubbish for the whole period of the strategy. The director reassured councillors that they could in future transfer the contract to another council. But who will want to buy into old technology that is not even state of the art today?
West London Friends of the Earth warned of the dangers of a long term contract in our response to the waste strategy consultation, but this warning seems to have been suppressed from the published list of responses."
The West London Waste Authority (WLWA) is a statutory authority which carries out waste disposal for six boroughs in west London. The boroughs themselves are each responsible for the collection of waste in their areas. The Authority is composed of one councillor from each of its six constituent boroughs, the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames. The WLWA is financed by an annual levy on the constituent boroughs, which in 2005/6 was around £34.7m.
December 13, 2006
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