Cann condemns more incinerator secrecy; this time over incinerator sites (Ipswich Liberal Democrats)

Ipswich Liberal Democrats <info@ipswichlibdems.org.uk>

Cann condemns more incinerator secrecy; this time over incinerator sites

February 25, 2008 3:28 PM

Chr Park A cann Liberal Democrats today condemned the method in which the proposed site for an incinerator for Suffolk had been chosen. The site proposed, the Suffolk County Council highways maintenance depot at Great Blakenham in Mid-Suffolk, as has been picked by the Conservative Administration without any consultation. It is now proposed, after the site is named, to consult the public. No other options for sites have been released.

On the day that the County Council announces its proposed site for an incinerator, Liberal Democrats have also expressed serious concerns that the Conservative Administration has no intention of meeting their 'aspirational' target of a 60% recycling and composting rate for Suffolk by 2015.

As the Libdems revealed over the Christmas period the target of 60%, set under the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS) of the Suffolk Waste Partnership, was originally to be achieved by 2010 but had been pushed back to 2015 in December.

Now Liberal Democrats, after a month of asking, have received a copy of the outline business case for the proposed incinerator for Suffolk which seems to assume throughout that the County Council will only meet a 50% recycling target by 2020!

Speaking about the announcement local Liberal Democrat County Councillor Andrew Cann said, "The Conservative Administration seems to be doing this in reverse. I would have thought consulting the public first would be the right course of action, rather than picking a site and then telling everyone they can have a view on it going there. Given the Tories record on consultations in the last few years I think we can safely say they're unlikely to listen to what local people actually think about this. All along we've been told that there would be six possible sites for an incinerator, what happened to the other five?

I'm certainly going to be opposing this project; all the same issues and problems which the SnOasis development churned up will apply to this, only doubly so. That area is already suffering from HGV traffic and this will simply add more and more pressure to the infrastructure, further ruining the quality of life for people in my area.

The Conservatives are picking a tired technology at a time when the national mood is changing towards more green, innovative technologies for waste disposal. I'll be very interested to know when this decision was made and why they've waited until now to announce it. Once again we see the Conservative Administration at the county riding roughshod over local communities".