Battlefield Incinerator

Unfortunately we lost the Battlefield incinerator appeal.  We're very disappointed and surprised by this. 

We haven't given up yet though and we're pursuing various courses of action.

1, Trying to get Shropshire Council to start an early review of the contract due to the huge costs of incineration and the falling levels of waste (the contract allows for a review at 68,000t/a and we're not so far off that).

Cllr Keith Barrow (leader of Shropshire Council) has stated that they are reviewing the contract but we’re not convinced that they will do this thoroughly.  He has also stated that concerns over the contract are not widespread.  

You can help by sharing your concerns

with Cllr Barrow

(keith.barrow@shropshire.gov.uk)

and by asking friends, family etc to do the same.

Please be brief and polite and major on the incinerator, thank you.  

2, getting the PFI contract reviewed at Westminster.  As this is underpinned by the Government through a PFI contract they should be very interested. Daniel Kawczynski has promised to raise this with the Chancellor. We have just been party to a joint letter to George Osborne backing this up (see below).

3, we've also been looking at a judicial review of the decision.  This seems unlikely but we haven't made a decision not to proceed yet. 

At the public inquiry the alliance of Shropshire Council, Battlefield 1403 and ourselves (backed up by Michael Ryan, Steve Boulding, Nick Hall, Barry Haines and others) put up a rigorous, intense, detailed and reasonable defence of the planning committee's rejection of the proposal last year. 

Many thanks to Keith Kondakor (especially), Tim Hill  and Shlomo Dowen who all contributed hugely to our campaign with either little or no remuneration. Thanks also to all the S.FoE group members who helped out and all those who've donated to our fighting fund.

WE NEED ALL THE RESOURCES WE’VE GOT:

There are serious questions over the emissions from incinerator chimneys. Some reports indicate significant problems downwind from incinerators. The technology may have improved, but by how much? Why take any risks, when we can manage by recycling more? IT WOULD BE A HUGE BUILDING

in full view of the Battlefield Heritage site.

THIS TECHNOLOGY IS ALREADY OUTDATED

 if the incinerator gets built we’ll be stuck with it for 25 years.

IT WOULD BE HUGELY EXPENSIVE,

THE MOST EXPENSIVE INCINERATOR PER TONNE OF WASTE IN THE UK

DON’T BURN OUR RUBBISH, RECYCLE IT.

Derby Incinerator appeal won by campaigners. 19th Nov 2010.

The decision against the Derby incinerator (which would have combined a materials sorting facility and advanced thermal treatment) has been backed up on appeal.

The Inspector cited 3 main reasons,

1, Visual effect of the buildings,

2, impact on highways,

3, effect on living conditions, particularly air quality (the area already ahs significant air quality problems).

She stated that 'the residents' fear of harmful health effects is not something that in itself warrants a dismissal of this appeal. It is nevertheless a material consideration of some weight'

plus, 'I am not convinced the proposal is the only way to achieve the landfill targets and dismissal would give the Councils an opportunity to reconsider alternatives in the light of up to date recycling trends and emerging technologies'

and "I am not convinced that within the 25 year life of the proposal there would always be enough local waste to justify it's capacity' 

and lastly "and the facilities appetite for waste could divert effort and resources from waste reduction, re-use and recycling"

We trust that Veolia and Shropshire Council are studying the report very carefully.

(the report is available below)

INCINERATOR TURNED DOWN - UNANIMOUSLY!

 Is Veolia’s Proposed Battlefield Incinerator Mass Burn or not?

The Shropshire Waste Local Plan of 2005 specifically rules out mass burn incineration for the Battlefield site.

The officers’ report on the proposal tries to get round this by stating that ‘at the time of the preparation of the WLP mass burn incineration and EFW proposals commonly involved throughputs in excess of 250,000t/a. A facility of this size would have necessitated importation of waste from outside of Shropshire in conflict with the proximity principle. However application of EFW technology has progressed in the last 5-6 years and facilities with smaller outputs have become more feasible’. (pg 77 - this version slightly paraphrased).

However if you look: at
 
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/Wasteguide/mn_wmo_thermtreatment_incin.html#section2
 
it states that

“Mass burn incineration typically involves waste throughputs of between 10 and 50 tonnes per hour, with other types of incineration dealing with throughputs of around 1 to 2 tonnes per hour (Williams 1998). 
 
The Battlefield proposal is designed to operate at 12 tonnes per hour.

Also the same sized facility at Chineham (which the Battlefield design is based on) received planning permission in 2000.

So whilst it may be a small mass burn incinerator the Battlefield proposal quite clearly comes into that category, as defined 7 years before the WLP was agreed.  A small jockey is still a jockey.
 
The officers also argue that the WLP is site specific not technology specific. Whilst this may generally be the case for this site one particular technology was ruled out. We see no reason to change this very reasonable provision of the WLP.

Dave Green.

* Williams P, 1998. Waste Treatment and Disposal. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.

A lighthearted reminder.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKdZYYmTT9A&feature=related

Shropshire Waste Partnership (Shropshire County Councils) awarded a 27 year contract for household waste collection and disposal to Veolia Environmental Services. The contract puts great emphasis on recycling and composting, and Shrewsbury FoE have no argument with this. We do believe, however, that the targets for recyling could be much higher. They state that they will aim for at least 50%, we think it could easily be more. North Shropshire is already achieving 57%.

In addition, the current climate of opinion is changing, with Tesco promising to reduce their own packaging by 25%, all supermarkets saying they will reduce the distribution of plastic bags (although this does not seem to have got through to the check-out staff), and the packaging industry reporting a 14% reduction this year.