HALT INCINERATOR TRAVESTY ...

by CornwallNews | October 16, 2006 at 07:56 am | 3240 views | 4 comments

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In July 2006 a minority group in Cornwall 'County' Council voted to proceed, against opposition across Cornwall, with plans to burn Cornwall's waste in a furnace at St Dennis. Here is a sequence of contributions by TeamKernow to www.cornwall24.co.uk as matters have unfolded since.

July 15 2006

Matthew Taylor is taking an interest in reversing Cornwall ' County ' Council's incinerator policy back into the dark dank cellar of bad ideas from whence it came :

http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/Article540.htm
http://www.matthewtaylor.info/front.html

Cornwall ' County ' Council decides in the week July 17th-21st whether to ratify the SITA bid.

Members of Cornwall24 may wish to support his effort and the people of St Dennis and elsewhere to persuade Cornwall ' County ' Council to take a step back and think again and, before any decision is taken, arrange and await the findings of a Public Enquiry.

http://www.st-ig.co.uk

Here are the e mail addresses of Cornwall 'County' Council members who may benefit from and respond to concerned electorate input on this issue:

Here are previous threads on this topic on C24:

http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/PNphpBB2-vi ... -t-937.htm
http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/PNphpBB2-vi ... -t-839.htm
http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/PNphpBB2-vi ... art-30.htm

July 16th 20061.

Declining burnable waste = declining turnover = declining power generation = declining profit.

2.A top and urgent priority of all Councils should be to lobby the government to 'encourage' minimum production of non-recyclable/non-compostable products and packaging at source in all manufacturing processes by way of incentives and/or penalties?

3.The ultimate decision can only be better if everyone in Cornwall is better informed of all possibilities through the openness of a Public Enquiry. At present there appears to be too much decision making going on behind closed doors under the cloak of 'commercial confidentiality'?

It will, after all, be the people of Cornwall who most immediately breathe whatever quality of air is out there when all is said and done . That is a very personal, intimate and direct relationship to the outcome.

July 17th 2006.

The St Dennis constructive engagement operation is at: :
http://www.st-ig.co.uk

The e mail list at the start of this thread and at the thread 'Opening the Doors of Democracy in Cornwall' set up today may be useful to others in making their feelings known.

Wherever people stand on the waste issue, a transparent and full Public Enquiry can only be a good thing in this very important and far reaching issue and should be supported by as many people as possible.

July 17th 2006

Here are key point extracts from an e-mail sent by Team Kernow to most Cornwall County Council elected members on Sunday 16th July:

Dear Cornwall Councillor

We write to urge you to hold back from ratifying, this week, the SITA bid to pursue a single incinerator as a means of disposing of Cornwall's waste and to, instead, take up and promote Matthew Taylor's proposal for a Public Enquiry:

http://www.matthewtaylor.info/front.html

Such an enquiry would not only ensure that your electorate better understand the issues involved but is also more likely to lead to a better long term outcome all round.

Here are some points we would ask you to consider in advance of any decision making:

1.The paradox of waste incineration:

Cornwall needs maximum reduction of non-organic/non-recyclable waste generation at source to minimise the need for further landfill/incineration.

Incineration or 'waste to power' on the scale proposed at St Dennis, or any other site, requires the maintenance of a steady,reliable and even increasing input of non-organic/non-recyclable material for sustained/exponential corporate profitability.

What kind of business plan would stand up on the forecast of declining supplies of 'fuel' that would result from a truly responsible,determined and ecologically sound waste management strategy?

2.A Local Authority sincerely claiming to be aiming for the highest targets, hopefully ultimately 100%, in the recycling and composting of urban and business waste, thereby diminishing the need for incineration or landfill, would inevitably find itself in the position of undercutting the commercial viability of any operation seeking to maximise turnover and profit from the conversion of waste to energy.
Declining burnable waste = declining turnover = declining power generation = declining profit .

3.A top and urgent and more efficient priority for all Councils across the UK should be to lobby the government to 'encourage' minimum production of non recyclable/compostable products and packaging at source in all manufacturing processes by way of incentives and/or penalties.

4.The ultimate decision can only be better if everyone in Cornwall is better informed of all possibilities through the openness of a Public Enquiry. At present there appears to be too much decision making going on behind closed doors under the cloak of 'commercial confidentiality'.

5.Economic and social priorities in Cornwall appear to have been turned on their heads in recent years.

...

There is a widely held suspicion that this inversion of priorities is further reflected in the true but unmentioned agenda behind the incinerator proposal which is to facilitate the further overloading of Cornwall with house building programmes which actually, with proper management and designation of existing primary residential housing stock and prioritisation of full time residents' needs, are unnecessary.

There is NO actual current shortage of residential housing for the permanent residents of Cornwall or,indeed, for that matter, the UK.

Across the UK there are close to 1M empty houses,not counting misnomered second 'homes', of which around 75,000 are in the southwest of the UK[how many misnomered ' affordable' housing schemes does that equate to?]:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/resources/stats/statistics.html

In Cornwall itself the core cause of the problem is the mis-appropriation and mis-use of residential housing for part time holiday or income generation purposes largely by wealthy non-residents exploiting economic differentials without a care for cumulative social and other harm and disruption and the further inflated distancing of the remaining housing beyond the economic reach of local residents.

With clarity of perception and firm political will all that mis-used primary residential housing stock, which should never have been allowed by irresponsible and careless planners in the first place, can be recovered for its proper purpose. That would be so much more moral, expedient AND environmentally appropriate than the current ridiculous and insincere klondike building frenzy which is causing such enormous social and environmental harm across Cornwall along with extreme infrastructure overload rapidly approaching the point of breakdown.

Cornwall itself can't afford the environmental and other pressures generated by the anti-social indulgence in multiple house ownership by non-residents.In so many ways, the world itself can't afford it either.

The proper answers are moral/political, NOT concrete/constructional.

6.Shelter is, like food, a primary human need and collective community asset not, in a world with a social conscience, a mere narrow focus self-enrichment portfolio item.

The recovery of a meaningful year round economy in Cornwall requires that its EXISTING primary residential housing should be accessible, available and affordable to the families and young people who actually live here, not scandalously misappropriated for secondary holiday purposes.

Cornwall is awash with 'affordable' housing 'scammers'. These 'scams', rarely 100% and often merely 20-30%'affordable' and therefore,by overall definition 'unaffordable',just prop up the iniquities caused by laissez faire 'free' market primary resource mismanagement, push full-time residents into peripheral high ground new-build ghettos adjacent to winter ghost villages, overload infrastructure, the environment and services and exacerbate the potential for surface water flooding to long bedded in dwellings and settlements downstream.

Look at Truro-it is already a mis-planned and dysfunctional congestion nightmare and yet the irrational and impractical notion of adding another 4,000 new and actually unnecessary houses is actually proposed.

It is high time and long overdue that local authorities and planners in Cornwall prioritised the best interests of their full time residents by using all existing powers and obtaining additional powers to Zone for residence and Zone for holidays accommodation such as hotels, B&Bs, guest houses, holiday parks, camp sites etc. Here is a basic planning principle for any authority with its community's well-being as its focus and primary obligation:

'This is where our people live; this is where our holiday visitors stay'.

There is no social value nor moral virtue in long established villages and hamlets being turned into glorified holiday camps and standing largely empty through the winter merely for the convenience of rich non-residents exercising their 'freedom of choice' and thereby denying any true freedom of choice for the young people of Cornwall who wish to remain in the land of their birth or upbringing but are unable to even secure a modest independent roof over their heads.

...

7.Therefore the proper approach to waste management and indeed, even more fundamentally, water resource reliability in a changing climate, is to call an immediate halt to all unnecessary infrastructure overloading and resource draining house building. Then rational, sound, beneficial and robust solutions to problems such as waste control and management can be properly devised and implemented.

A fundamental element in such a recovery and consolidation of Cornwall as a cohesive social, economic and cultural entity is the kind of openness and trust that would be expressed and enabled through a Public Enquiry to arrive at a broadly endorsed solution to a fundamental problem such as waste.

We trust you will find this correspondence of some value towards doing what is best.

To truthful unspun futures.

Onen Hag Oll

Team Kernow

July 18th 2006.

The Cornwall 'County' Council meeting to vote on whether to ratify the SITA incinerator bid is this morning, Tuesday 18th July.

What will be very interesting will be to uncover and publish how many Liberal Democrat councillors opposed to the incinerator obey the party whip and absent themselves from the vote thereby denying their electorate a truly democratic decision.

Should SITA's bid be ratified there are moves afoot to take C 'C' C to the High Court for judicial revue.

This dated incineration notion at C 'C' C goes back to the mid-1990's when knowledge, understanding and technology were not as well developed as today . It would be a tragedy were Cornwall to be lumbered with a costly monstrous fume spewing white elephant through a lack of rigour and policy making agility.

July 19th 2006.

1.No contract has been signed.
2.Issues concerning due process remain.
3.There were fundamental procedural deficiencies in today's closed door discussion.
4.All 5 Liberal Democrat MPs for Cornish constituencies are calling for a full Public Enquiry:
http://www.matthewtaylor.info/front.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/5190064.stm
5.A request for a High Court Judicial Revue is being prepared.
6.This important issue is far from done and dusted.
7.The Council, allowing for 'abstensions' and 'absentees', was virtually split down the middle 35:28 + 4 abstensions.(Total no. of councillors:82.Declaration of Interest Withdrawals(Partial): 5. Absentees:10)
8.The voting records will be posted here when they become available.
9.The citizens of St Dennis and other areas under threat will continue to need support in securing alternative rational, progressive and truly 'sustainable' environmentally sound waste management policies and practices:
www.st-ig.co.uk

10.In this instance, Cornwall 'County' Council has used retrograde 1950's thinking to fail to solve a 21st Century problem AND has also badly failed the people of Cornwall. Reversal and rectification is still an option.

Further interesting and relevant reading:
http://www.climateimc.org/?q=node/256
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste/re ... perts.html
http://www.noincineratorsforeurope.org/News.asp

July 19th 2006.

http://www.matthewtaylor.info/front.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/5190064.stm

As it stands the result of yesterday's meeting, which is NOT in fact the irreversible rubber stamp that BBC Radio Cornwall and BBC TV Southwest have tried to suggest, has the air of a gerrymandered, under-informed, under-discussed and insufficiently transparent outcome. Motions were passed which were neither named nor described and had nothing to do with that catch-all convenience 'commercial confidentiality'.

July 19th 2006.

ALL the communities of Cornwall, including St Dennis and St Day, would benefit from a Public Enquiry which would do its best to ensure that the whole issue of waste management, utilisation and residual disposal is fully scrutinised and the best available CONTEMPORARY solution identified.

It's a WHOLE OF CORNWALL AND BEYOND matter, AS WELL AS a village matter.

Onen Hag Oll

July 19th 2006.

Accountability and transparency ...are key to effective democracy.

The economic, environmental and social case for an outmoded single enormous incinerator pumping out a chemical cocktail across the fields, valleys,towns and villages of Cornwall and beyond with, based on rapidly increasing recycling and composting percentage projections, a progressively declining 'waste to energy' fuel supply has not been transparently proven in a single completely open public forum.

The case, therefore, for a full and rigorous Public Enquiry is solid and compelling. It is also a profound duty to the well-being of future generations to ensure the best way to go forward is identified with more than 42.6% (35/82) of such a forum saying 'aye!'.

July 19th 2006.

Clearly no-one, not even David Whalley or Adam Paynter, can ever describe a vote of 42.6% a 'Clear Victory'.

In fact...it is closer to the opposite.

July 20th 2006.

Here is the logo and motto of Cornwall ' County ' Council:

Motto: ' Onen Hag Oll ' - ' One And All '

Here is the minority of elected Cornwall 'County' Council members who voted for an environmentally damaging single monstrous incinerator non-solution for Cornwall's waste: 42.6%

Here is David Whalley,the Liberal (non)Democrat 'Leader' of Cornwall ' County ' Council who has presided over this smoke and mirrors fiasco:

Here is OFFICIAL UK Liberal Democrat Waste Policy:
http://www.libdems.org.uk/news/story.ht ... =news.html

Mr Whalley is clearly neither a democrat nor a Liberal Democrat nor has much time for the motto that comes with his office.

Something will have to give. Better Mr Whalley than St Dennis!

July 21st 2006.

http://www.mebyonkernow.org/Public/Stories/208-1.shtml
http://www.mebyonkernow.org/Public/Stories/212-1.shtml
http://www.mebyonkernow.org/Public/Stories/29-1.shtml
http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/Article569.htm

...The fossil fuelled bulk transportation of waste by way of train and hundreds of HGV journeys every day from far and wide to one central chemical cocktail emitting furnace can never claim to be, as Laurence Reed ,the (then)ill-informed overdevelopment-biased rabble-rousing BBC Radio Cornwall presenter described so-called 'waste to power' the other day, 'green'.

July 21st 2006.

Matthew Taylor, MP for Truro and St Austell, puts the thoroughgoing case for a full and transparent Public Enquiry:

http://www.st-ig.co.uk/matthew%20taylor.htm

Logically, a full and transparent and open Public Enquiry should be put in place immediately BEFORE any further non-armslength prematurely presumptive planning procedures are activated.

Shouldn't the National Liberal Democrat Party also be immediately considering expelling the Cornwall Liberal (non)Democrat Splinter Group, led by David Whalley and Adam Paynter, from the Party as they clearly do not accept and have perversely failed to apply national Liberal Democrat Party waste management policies?

July 21st 2006.

Will this, more locally from a county over in England, also do for starters (as an illustration of effective alternative methods of managing waste) ?

http://www.devon.gov.uk/contrast/index/ ... big_40.htm

If it has been done to this extent in this short time can you not now agree that it is quite realistic to expect the recycling/composting component, particularly when combined with serious downward pressure on gratuitous waste-generating manufacturers from central government (which will necessarily be forthcoming, the sooner the better) and the progressive development and refinement of environmentally attuned systems and practices, to go much higher?

Where do such figures put projections for a profit-seeking, private shareholder-satisfying business plan based on spun so-called 'waste to power'? Into the dustbin for recycling?

July 21st 2006.

The Falmouth family Tregothnan Estate at Tresillian, near Truro, is managed by his son Evelyn Boscawen who busies himself by getting others to grow and process, in Kernow, a commercial tea he calls 'English' tea. They both may be contacted via:

http://www.tregothnan.com/contact.htm

Might the initial approach conversation with David Whalley and Adam Paynter, over said tea, have gone something like this: 'God, you don't want to do that, do you!? Just keep it as far away from my gardens as you possibly can. Oh...I've just remembered...we have a farm near St Dennis you can have for a generous portion of public money. The peasants and pheasants up there are used to filthy air - we've been making them breathe it for the last few hundred years!'

Lord Falmouth and his soon to inherit son Evelyn may, of course, have been under-informed of all the adverse implications...July 21st 2006. It is perfectly possible and, in fact, is the case that people in diverse locations across Cornwall care deeply about what happens across the length and breadth of Cornwall and out to the great beyond.

It would be unwise and, indeed, wrong to assume that close proximity is required to care about what happens at St Dennis or elsewhere. Everything is interconnected.

This is manifestly true in the case of a ponderous and heavily centralised waste management system whose effects will be felt just as but, more likely, more heavily and widespread than any more localised, modular and flexible arrangement and which will be much less responsive and more costly when it comes to adapting to changes in the composition and quantity of waste, the types generated or new techniques developed for less harmful conversion or disposal.

The manner in which many of Cornwall's electorate have been insulted by the way this policy has been bulldozed through is also at the heart of the matter. 'Public' consultations that have occurred have been carefully orchestrated, many by invitation only at closed meetings behind closed doors.

That is not what the Liberal Democrats lead us to believe they are all about, is it?

Take a look again at how well Devon County Council is doing at accelerating the rate of increase in their ratio of low impact waste management processes:

http://www.devon.gov.uk/contrast/index/ ... big_40.htm

True, Rapid, Proper & Seriously Significant Progress by alternative means to a single central furnace is indeed possible.

July 22nd 2006

That is why Mebyon Kernow's position and Matthew Taylor's call for such a Public Enquiry is fully justified and the only best way forward:

http://www.mebyonkernow.org/Public/Stories/208-1.shtml

http://www.st-ig.co.uk/matthew%20taylor.htm

July 26th 2006.

Here's the bigger picture:

http://no-burn.org/resources/library/Poor_solution.pdf

And this too:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/Templates/ ... uPoint=D-D

The Cornwall Liberal (non) Democrat (un) Gilded Splinter Party has done all the people of Cornwall , not only the residents of St Dennis , a profound dis-service with this ill-considered, unhealthy and outmoded decision.

They should have the wisdom to recognise their error, rescind this gerrymandered marginal decision, welcome the call for a full Public Enquiry with open arms and help it along enthusiastically to save themselves from feelings of guilt, embarrassment and shame for years to come.

Who really wants or needs a poisonous presence like this stuck into the heart of Kernow ? :

S .I .T .A . ?

July 26th 2006:

Lord Falmouth & Sons Ltd - Scrap Dealers...

So David Whalley and Adam Paynter have found a ' willing landowner ' in Lord Falmouth and his sons Charles,Nicholas and Evelyn Boscawen of Tregothnan Estates, 'owners' of Rostowrack Farm, St Dennis, blithely content with the concreting and airborne poisoning of the green fields and air of Cornwall for a slice of Cornwall's public money via a French company SITA .?

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:XPz ... k&cd=1

http://no-burn.org/resources/library/Poor_solution.pdf

www.st-ig.co.uk

For those who share the view that a single monstrous waste furnace at St Dennis is a foolish and dangerous plan here are the Rowstowrack Farm owner contact details to enable education and dissuasion:

Tregothnan Esates:

http://www.tregothnan.com/contact.htm

Son and Tregothnan Estates Manager, Evelyn Boscawen:

info@tregothnan.com

Lord Falmouth:

Viscount Lord Falmouth
Buston Manor,
Shingle Barn Lane,
Hunton, Maidstone,
Kent, ME15 0QR

Telephone: 01622-820560

Eldest Son & Heir:

The Hon Charles Boscawen
Moat Farm
Dennington
Woodbridge
IP13 8AR

Tel: 01728 638768

The genealogy:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p5288.htm

Mmmm....so might this...become more stew than tea?:

http://www.perennialtearoom.com/browsep ... e-Tea.HTML

http://www.foodfromcornwall.co.uk/suppl ... lierid=597

http://www.tregothnantea.com/tregothnan_tea_story.asp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01200.html

http://www.visitbritain.com/corporate/p ... gland.aspx

http://www.bangladeshobserveronline.com ... 1/ltte.htm

July 27th 2006:

Lord Falmouth & Sons Ltd - Scrap Dealers cont...

Do we see Tregothnan, with all its roomy acres and 'altruistic' owners, being offered as an incinerator site option ?

'Tis centrally located, near an arterial route and a major centre of population after all......

How far back into the murky smoke filled subterranean backroom passages of advance planning scheming away from the public eye and 'let's spring it on them when everything's done and dusted and progressed too far for them to do anything about it' do we think the Rostowrack Farm site option lies?

July 27th 2006:

Lord Falmouth & Sons Ltd - Scrap Dealers -cont...

Notice how far the proposed site at St Dennis is from Tregothnan itself...bit of a lack of proximity issue there, wouldn't you say?

So did Lord Falmouth make a suitably respectful announcement/press release to the people of St Dennis / Cornwall some time ago along the lines of -

'I've been approached by David Whalley , Adam Paynter and other Executives of Cornwall 'County' Council who are having a look at the idea of building a municipal waste incinerator somewhere in Cornwall. As you all know, I have numerous plots of land across Cornwall. Before I make any decisions about whether to let any of my/our land/air/infrastructure be used for an incinerator and its supply network in a way that would inevitably affect everyone in Cornwall I thought it would be the right thing to do, this being a matter also likely to affect everyone concerned about the quality of the air we actually breathe every minute of every day, to hear what your thoughts are.

If you are concerned and wish to let us know your views before we put any wheels in motion please contact me and my sons via our Tregothnan Estates web site at :

http://www.tregothnan.com/contact.htm '

July 29th 2006:

Cross Party demands for a full Public Enquiry:

http://www.mebyonkernow.org/Public/Stories/209-1.shtml

http://www.letsrecycle.com/info/localau ... story=5848

STIG web site:

www.st-ig.co.uk

SITA details:

http://www.sita.co.uk/assets/sitascene_spring05.pdf

STIG, Dick Cole and Matthew Taylor clearly need maximum support from across Kernow to secure a full Public Enquiry. Given Cornwall ' County ' Council's chaotic mishandling of the issue, lack of openness and lack of decisive consensus, identifying and implementing the most effective and least environmentally damaging waste management strategy following a fully transparent and thorough Public Enquiry that puts every aspect and consideration, including commercial, out into the public domain would clearly be the right and best thing for all, both now and into the future.

August 5th 2006:

Waste , manipulation , ineptitude & inadequacy...

The strength of feeling at St Dennis appears to be a direct consequence and result of the provocative and high handed approach to the issue of waste management taken by the small coterie at the wayward helm of Cornwall 'County' Council.

In any PFI arrangement, particularly one of the proposed magnitude of £500M over 30 years, the public are stakeholders as much as the shareholders of any proposed corporate 'partner'. That is why this entire issue needs to be discussed and debated in fully transparent and open forums, not behind closed doors nor in cosy 'by invitation only' 'Liason Group' meetings whose prime purpose is to divide the community into small malleable groups. This is a practice increasingly reverted to by Restormel Borough Council and other District Councils across Cornwall when the temperature rises around a contentious subject.It enables professional persuasion teams to browbeat/persuade/cajole/outpresent the undecided and any opposition. More commonly this strategy is known as 'divide and rule'.

The only satisfactory and electorally respectful solution to the waste management strategy impasse is a Full and Transparent Public Enquiry where expertise and cross examination of the highest calibre can be brought to bear, in complete openness, upon the issue of deciding the best way forward for waste management in Cornwall.

That is the only approach that will satisfy the rudiments of democracy that the Cornwall Liberal Democrat Splinter Party has signally failed to deliver on this important and far reaching issue.

The calls by Mebyon Kernow and Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MPs for a Full and Open Public Enquiry should be widely endorsed and supported, even by Cornwall 'County' Council.

http://www.mebyonkernow.org/Public/Stories/209-1.shtml

http://www.matthewtaylor.info/front.html

If even Restormel Borough Council Leader Tim Jones, (not renowned for holding back when it comes to smearing the soil with concrete or suffocating it with tarmac ) can come out in support of the call for a Full and Open Public Enquiry, all Cornwall ' County ' Council members can too! : http://www.restormel.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=19755

September 6th 2006:

BBC News Item 06.09.2006 :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/5318948.stm

'Delay over waste contract signing

The signing of Cornwall's new waste management contract has been delayed for at least a month, it has emerged.
The French company, Sita, was awarded a £500m, 30-year contract to manage the county's waste which was due to be signed on 1 October.

Sita's plans include a controversial proposal to build an incinerator near St Dennis.

Adam Paynter, from the county council, said due to complications the contract will not now start until 1 November.

"It's a hugely complicated contract and a large amount of money, it's purely that the processes that have to be gone through can't be completed on the date," he said.

When it takes over, Sita will be responsible for the whole of the country of Cornwall's waste disposal and recycling.'

For those who may wish to write to SITA's bankers to persuade them of the recklessness of burning up cash in the construction of an incinerator that will be outmoded before it is even built and would become progressively irrelevant as necessarily compostable, recyclable and reconstitutable products and packaging become the norm in the near future, here are their contact details:

http://www.hsbc.com/hsbc/about_hsbc/board-of-directors

http://www.rbs.com/about03.asp?id=ABOUT ... _COMMITTEE

October 11th 2006:

Update

Monday October 9th.

Kerrier District Council declare a vote of 'No Confidence' in Cornwall 'County' Council's waste management 'strategy' and call for a public enquiry before the signing of any 30 year contracts.
October 16th 2006:

Incinerator Update:

Newquay Town Council come alongside.

Newquay Voice - 11.10.2006:

'Newquay Town Council is to add its weight to protests against a single waste incinerator for Cornwall.

The town council decided to respond to a request from St Stephen-in-Brannel Parish Council for support.

Newquay councillors voted to write in support of the council in condemning the plan for a single waste incinerator at St Dennis.'

Onen Hag Oll!

November 24th.

It appears there are other & better avenues Cornwall 'County' Council/SITA should be exploring:

Nick Fletcher
Monday November 20, 2006
The Guardian

Australian engineer lands Lancashire recycling deal
• £2bn waste disposal project will create 380 jobs
• Process turns household rubbish into compost

http://www.globalrenewables.com.au/depo ... gement.pdf

An Australian company that has developed an environmentally friendly system for disposing of household waste is close to signing a £2bn contract with Lancashire and Blackpool councils. The 25-year deal, agreed under the government's private finance initiative, covers 1.4 million people and 775,000 tonnes of waste a year, and is due to be finalised in the next few days.

Global Renewables, a Manchester-based subsidiary of the Australian engineering group GRD Ltd, plans to invest £340m to build two waste facilities in partnership with Bovis Lendlease. About £90m comes from PFI credits, with the main funding coming from five banks, including Bank of Ireland and Lloyds TSB. The company intends to look at other UK waste contracts up for renewal in the next 18 months. It is also considering listing on the London stock market next year.

David Singh, development director at Global Renewables, said the company's system substantially reduces the amount of household waste going to landfill sites - which produce greenhouse gases - and avoids the need to incinerate waste.
"Globally, we can't continue to plunder the world's resources and then bury the refuse on our doorstep," said Mr Singh.

The process, which has been used in Sydney, involves an integrated mechanical system that sorts recyclable materials such as plastics, metals and glass, and also turns about 70% of the remaining black-bag household waste to compost.

"The idea is to rescue plastic, paper, glass and other recyclables. Then with the organic matter, to use it to produce biogas - a renewable energy source - and turn the rest into compost to be reapplied to the land." The company claims it will deal with enough rubbish to fill Old Trafford 86 times over the 25 years, and reckons 100,000 trees will be planted a year using its organic compost. It consulted Friends of the Earth while planning.

"This is the first PFI waste project to meet all the legal environmental requirements in advance," said Mr Singh. "The thing that enabled us to win the project in a competitive market is the low environmental footprint. There are some companies trying similar approaches, especially in Europe, but this is new to the UK."

The company plans to build one facility on an old British Leyland site near Preston and the other at a former ICI plant at Thornton. Between them, they are expected to employ about 380 people. The contract is a fixed-price deal, with GRD building, owning and operating the facilities, then transferring ownership to the council after 25 years.

Update May 17th 2007. STIG Initiative.

World Pollution Expert to Speak on Incinerator Hazard at St Austell College.

STIG would like as many people as possible to attend a presentation led by

Dr Dick van Steenis MBBS. Dr van Steenis has been researching industrial air pollution for the past twelve years.

His presentation will look at the effects of incineration and it’s consequential impact on the people of Cornwall’s health. Dr van Steenis is a world expert in pollution matters and has given evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee, as well as having a number of reports published in four peer reviewed journals, including The Lancet. He has also lectured at five National and four International medical conferences.

Dr van Steenis has been called as an expert witness at a number of inquiries, with his knowledge resulting in over twenty successful campaigns, which include incinerators at Hull, Norfolk and Killamarsh.

Venue: St Austell College Date: Friday 18th May 2007 Time: 7pm to 9pm Disabled access and ample car parking available.

Matthew Taylor MP will also be explaning why he is leading the call for a Public Inquiry.

The Sunday Express. April 29th 2007.By Lucy Johnston and Martyn Halle

HUNDREDS of baby deaths a year are being linked to pollution emitted by public waste incinerators.

Researchers have established a significantly higher death rate among children up to one year old when they live under smoke from an incinerator chimney.

There is a lower death rate for children who live out of the path of incinerator emissions. The report comes after a detailed analysis of death rates across the country.

Dr Dick van Steenis, a retired GP who helped head the study, said: “The incinerators are burning all sorts of material from domestic waste to hazardous chemical and radioactive waste. The danger comes from the particles released into the atmosphere. They are of a size that can be easily inhaled into the lung where they lodge and cause damage to the body.”

The most damaging particle, known as PM 2.5, is particularly harmful to youngsters he said.

“Newborn babies are more likely to succumb to damage from chemical pollutants in these inhaled particles.” He added: “Around every single incinerator, infant mortality rates, asthma rates and autism rates are sky-high.

“That’s if you live under the smoke stream from the chimney. In areas nearby which don’t get the smoke, the death rate is either at the national average or lower.”

The data has been collected from the latest official statistics covering the years 2003 to 2005.

Enfield in north London has the UK’s largest incinerator at Edmonton. The death rate for babies up one year old in west of the borough is virtually nil.

But in eastern Enfield, which sits downwind of the incinerator and is exposed to smoke from the chimney, the death rate is between 10 and 12 per thousand of population. The national average death rate for babies up to a year is 5.2 per thousand.

Dr van Steenis said that he had accounted for other factors that could increase the death rate such as social deprivation. He pointed out, for example, that “leafy middle-class areas” of west London were affected by emissions from a big incinerator at Colnbrook near Slough. In some parts around this plant infant mortality rates are treble the national average.

“We compared those areas with nearby well-to-do wards that didn’t get emissions and they were significantly lower than the national average.”

Professor Vyvyan Howard, an expert on environmental pollution from the University of Ulster, said dioxins released in the burning of rubbish had been shown to be cancer causing.

He said that while incinerator filters take out 99 per cent of particles, it is the ultra fine one per cent – the PM?2.5s – that can have chronic effects on health.

London Waste, which owns the Edmonton incinerator, said it had not seen the van Steenis report. A spokesman said: “We use a proven technology with a track record of safe operation and it is recognised throughout Europe as a safe and efficient method of energy generation.

“There is no consistent evidence that our facilities cause adverse health effects.We continually monitor particulates such as PM 2.5s and the levels released are lower than the maximum permitted.”

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Actual News Geezer

at 10:30 on October 16th, 2006

Your story would be much more effective if you put the most recent news first!

That's the essence of news - you know, the "new" part.

A killer headline, a strong "lede" (Google that!) and you're off to the races getting lots of people to read about your issue.

The Actual News Guy,

Mark Schneider

CornwallNews

at 12:35 on November 16th, 2006

Your comment is appreciated Mark.

However, this is a story with a long preamble and much yet to come. Reading of some of the hinterland in sequence is helpful to arrive at some kind of grasp of current evolutions.

The issues arising have a bearing on how waste is created, minimised and managed in many places far beyond Cornwall.

The story is intended for those with a ' sustainable ' attention span!

CornwallNews

at 12:32 on March 31st, 2008