The Incinerator - Already a Costly Dinosaur

Many thanks to STIG and the Cornwall Waste Forum for the hard work and dedication that they are showing on behalf of all of the people of Cornwall.

The Court of Appeal decision today is far from the end of the road and STIG has vowed to carry on the fight against the economic and environmental disaster that is the planned incinerator for St Dennis.

A big thankyou to Rod Toms - MK parish councillor, environmental expert and STIG campaigner for his 'guest' contribution to this blog.

"The rocky road to building an Incinerator at St. Dennis just took another twist. It was initially thrown out by democratically elected Councillors at Parish, District and County level, but was resurected by the Public Inquiry Inspector. It was sunk in the High Court, but today was dragged up to the surface again by the Lords of Appeal who found in favour of the developer, Sita.

However, this is far from the end. The legal team for Cornwall Waste Forum who are opposing the Incinerator are seeking leave to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court on a matter of law and also seeking an injunction to stop building work from commencing. If this is unsuccesful, their QC will take the matter to the European Courts.

So why is this challenge so important? Well, we will be lumbered with a cross between a White Elephant and a Dinosaur that will cost Cornwall over £150 Million. The technology is dirty and out of date, and by the time it starts to burn waste the amount of feedstock being generated by householders will have fallen so low that it will be uneconomical to run. This will mean that waste will be trucked into Cornwall from up country at a huge profit to Sita, when we (the Tax Payers) have paid to build it. It will still leave many thousands of tons of toxic fly ash to be dumped in Gloucestershire and other ash to be dumped locally, so the landfill sites will still overflow.

Mebyon Kernow believe that the way forward is to embrace and fully commit to new technologies and recycling processes which will make it possible to achieve a Zero Waste policy. This means sorting the waste and using the food waste to drive clean simple Anaerobic Digesters which produce energy and compost. There will only be a tiny residue going to landfill.This whole process will cost less than a third of an Incinerator and generate millions of pounds through the sale of recycling.

MK looks to empower our innovators. We argue for the laying of foundations for the new industries to invest in sustainable processes and to generate the economic advantages to lift Cornwall from the bottom part of European poverty tables"

Incinerator - Idiomatic of Westminster Government

Eric Pickles has spoken. With a stroke of his pen he has consigned a democratic process, by which Cornwall had said no to the incinerator (now to be built in St Dennis) to the bin. So much for commitment to local people from Cornish Conservatives and so much for commitment to localism from national Conservatives.

Before the election David Cameron promised a ‘Minister for Cornwall’. As soon as the deal with the Liberal Democrats was done, Mr Cameron reneged on that promise - claiming that Cornwall had 6 MPs at the heart of government. All six Tory and Lib Dem Cornish MPs campaigned against the incinerator and yet Mr Pickles seems to have ignored their opinion as much as he has ignored the people of Cornwall – so much for a strong Cornish voice at the heart of Westminster!

In fact Mr Pickles appears to have given more importance to the perfidy shown by the Conservative Leader of Cornwall Council, Alec Robertson. Mr Robertson has previously voted against the incinerator project but then wrote a secret letter to his boss in Westminster, pleading for the findings of the Cornwall Council Planning Committee to be over-ruled. This is surely a betrayal on the same scale as that shown by the Liberal Democrats when they jettisoned their pre-election pledges for a taste of Westminster power.

Indeed this betrayal has led to Stephen Gilbert MP popping up on Radio Cornwall feigning indignation and anger at what has happened. The problem is, Mr Gilbert, it was your party that created the problem in the first place by creating the contract with SITA. I also find it extremely hard to believe anything you say given the way you go back on your pledges. Who can forget Mr Gilbert holding his pledge on tuition fees which was so dramatically discarded as soon as he took his seat in Westminster. In fact Mr Gilbert’s feigned anger on behalf of the people of St Dennis was very reminiscent of his speech back in October when he promised that his job was to vote against the government over Devonwall – just before he meekly went through the lobby and cast his vote to discard Cornwall’s ancient border in favour of joining Cornwall and Devon. Sorry Mr Gilbert, I can’t trust a word you say.

Perhaps the Labour Party can give us some strong leadership. Unfortunately not. Just as they were totally divided over the recent AV vote, the Labour party in Cornwall seem to be split on the incinerator issue. While Jude Robinson has come out firmly in favour of the incinerator other notable members of Labour in Cornwall have made it clear that they believe that the incinerator is bad for Cornwall.

The only party that has consistently argued against the incinerator project is Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall. Dick Cole has a wealth of experience and knowledge of this case and has acted in a statesmanlike manner throughout the whole process. It is clear that the only party that can always be trusted to put Cornwall first is Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall. Cllr Cole will continue to do all that he can to help the residents of St Dennis in their continued fight – just as MK will continue its fight to put Cornwall’s interests before those of Westminster.