PRESS RELEASE: 24th May 2009
Essex Friends of the Earth
01206/383123

Photo op outside Basildon council offices on Tuesday 26th May from 11am to 1pm.

County Conservatives break their 'no incineration' pledges as districts sign legally-binding 'Inter Authority Agreements' for 28.5 year contracts costing council taxpayers £8000 each

ECC is waiting for its long-delayed bid for PFI (Private Finance Initiative) funding for its controversial MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) waste disposal plants and an incinerator to be decided by a panel at the Treasury.

This is for 28.5 year contracts which will cost Essex council taxpayers £8000 each. The district councils have to sign legally-binding Inter Authority Agreements with the county council. Most have done so except Colchester who have refused to support the waste strategy, or the 28.5 year contracts and pulled out of supporting the PFI bid.

Last Tuesday anti-incinerator campaigners from Coventry and elsewhere in the UK were protesting outside the Treasury as these meetings are held in secret without hearing the evidence from people opposing the bids. Essex campaigners joined them.

It is likely that the Essex PFI bid, which has been strongly criticised in letters to Defra and the Minister, will be heard shortly as it is the only remaining bid from the third stage of bids and last Tuesday the fourth stage bids were being decided.

Since April 2006 PFI waste bids are required to have all district councils supporting them and have 'broad public support'. But Colchester's new LibDem/Labour/Independent coalition council opposed the Essex waste strategy last May and formally revoked the previous Tory administration's support for the PFI bid.

There were 25,500 objections to incineration in the Essex Waste Plan, and 76% of responses to the Essex War on Waste consultation opposed all six MBT and incineration options. 69% supported alternative Option 7 drawn up by councillors and campaigners. This is why ECC ran the 2008 widely-criticised misleading 'consultation' which failed to explain that the shredded and dried residues from the MBT plants would be burnt in an incinerator.

One month ago on a knife-edge vote ECC Tories alone approved an application for massive MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) waste plants at Rivenhall Airfield including an incinerator for 360,000 tonnes p.a., burning polluting pellets made from shredded and dried 'black bag' rubbish produced at the MBT plants at Basildon and Rivenhall.

There had been over 800 letters received, all except one objecting to this proposal, yet four Tories voted in favour and four LibDem and Labour councillors voted against. The Tory Chairman used his casting vote to vote again to approve it. This completely shreds the 'no incineration' pledges made for years by Lord Hanningfield and the Conservatives.

However, campaigners against the plants are relieved that Government Minister Hazel Blears has just 'called in' the application for a public inquiry to be held. No other waste application can be made there until this one has been examined by an Inspector.

This throws ECC's plans into disarray as they are on the point of putting out the long-delayed 28.5 year contracts to tender and they are unable to offer the Rivenhall site for an incinerator. The Waste Plan permits incinerators on any of the waste sites including Basildon, which has been the long concern of opposition councillors and campaigners.