PRESS RELEASE: 27th July 2009
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colchesterfoeECC LOSES ITS BID FOR PFI AND SPRINGS NEW LAST DITCH BID AS TIME RUNS OUT - HAS COLCHESTER RENEGED ON ITS PLEDGE TO OPPOSE PFI BID?
PRESS RELEASE: 27th July 2009
Essex Friends of the Earth
01206/383123
ECC LOSES ITS BID FOR WASTE PFI FUNDING AND SPRINGS NEW LAST DITCH BID ON COUNCILLORS AND ESSEX PEOPLE AS TIME RUNS OUT - HAS COUNCIL RENEGED ON ITS PLEDGE TO COLCHESTER PEOPLE TO OPPOSE PFI BID?
Essex County Council's bids for PFI funding since December 2005 didn't comply with the new rules since 2006: 'Proposals should demonstrate that other relevant authorities, the public and interested parties have been consulted and that there is broad consensus'. They also included exaggerated waste growth figures and planned massive overprovision.
Since May 2008 Colchester's new administration has formally opposed the county's waste strategy. They pulled out of the county's PFI bid, as they had pledged to do, for massive MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plants which shred 'black bag' rubbish and dry it, producing a polluting fuel to burn in an incinerator on one of the Essex waste sites.
Defra received many objections and complaints from members of the public, opposition councillors and Colchester council. ECC have now drawn up a new 'Outline Business Case' for PFI funding, which their Cabinet approved in June, as time runs out for PFI bids. They have deftly included Colchester council as a member of the original 'Partnership'!
At the July West and East area Waste Joint Committee public meetings, the first East one since last October, district councillors were angry that they had only just learnt about this new PFI bid. It sets out a 27.5 year contract for one 350,000 tonnes p.a. MBT plant at Basildon, designed to produce 25% as fuel for an incinerator at one of the waste sites.
There were 25,000 objections to incineration in the Essex Waste Plan. In the 2002 War on Waste consultation 79% respondents objected to all six official options of MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) and incineration; 69% supported alternative Option 7 which supported unlimited recycling and composting, with no MBT or incineration.
The county's PFI bid in May 2007, including a controversial incinerator at Rivenhall, was delayed because ECC had to demonstrate public support. A widely-condemned misleading and simplistic leaflet was sent to all Essex householders in 2008. Only 1% of residents responded to the questionnaire yet this is used to support the latest PFI bid.
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator for Colchester & NE Essex FoE said:
"This county council plan will destroy half our valuable resources for thirty years at a cost of around £8000 for each council tax payer. They even admit it is more costly than the 'Do Minimum' option! They haven't compared it to a 'Do Maximum' option. Surely it would be better to invest in more recycling and composting instead over the next decade?
Government-funded WRAP have released research which shows that it is cheaper for councils to have separated kerbside collections for all materials and food waste. This brings in high prices for quality recyclate for our UK reprocessors. It is the commingled (mixed) collections which the county council is promoting in wheelie bins or plastic sacks which contaminate materials. They also cost more and waste more energy.
Defra strongly supports local Anaerobic Digestion plants for separately-collected food waste and agricultural slurries run by local farmers - Germany has 2,500 AD plants while the UK only had 23 last year. A new National Grid report says that if the biogas from AD is used for domestic heating it could provide heating for nearly half of the UK's homes.
As for methane in landfill, the majority has been drawn off for energy at landfill sites across the UK. We should now collect most of the biodegradable garden waste, paper, card and foodwaste for recycling and composting and stop landfilling it where it creates methane.
We are currently recycling and composting a mere 43% in Essex. If we recycled only 60% by 2020, Government figures say that half of that 40% residual waste could still be biodegradable paper, card, garden and food waste and still comply with the 2020 Landfill Directive reduction requirements. We can do much better than that in ten years can't we?
Surely we should be pleading urgently now for local recycling and composting so that we can massively reduce the waste of our global resources and energy? Tell the county council to dump its waste strategy and PFI bid and get on with it!"
ENDS
PRESS RELEASE: 27th July 2009
Essex Friends of the Earth
01206/383123
ECC LOSES ITS BID FOR WASTE PFI FUNDING AND SPRINGS NEW LAST DITCH BID ON COUNCILLORS AND ESSEX PEOPLE AS TIME RUNS OUT - HAS COUNCIL RENEGED ON ITS PLEDGE TO COLCHESTER PEOPLE TO OPPOSE PFI BID?
Essex County Council's bids for PFI funding since December 2005 didn't comply with the new rules since 2006: 'Proposals should demonstrate that other relevant authorities, the public and interested parties have been consulted and that there is broad consensus'. They also included exaggerated waste growth figures and planned massive overprovision.
Since May 2008 Colchester's new administration has formally opposed the county's waste strategy. They pulled out of the county's PFI bid, as they had pledged to do, for massive MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plants which shred 'black bag' rubbish and dry it, producing a polluting fuel to burn in an incinerator on one of the Essex waste sites.
Defra received many objections and complaints from members of the public, opposition councillors and Colchester council. ECC have now drawn up a new 'Outline Business Case' for PFI funding, which their Cabinet approved in June, as time runs out for PFI bids. They have deftly included Colchester council as a member of the original 'Partnership'!
At the July West and East area Waste Joint Committee public meetings, the first East one since last October, district councillors were angry that they had only just learnt about this new PFI bid. It sets out a 27.5 year contract for one 350,000 tonnes p.a. MBT plant at Basildon, designed to produce 25% as fuel for an incinerator at one of the waste sites.
There were 25,000 objections to incineration in the Essex Waste Plan. In the 2002 War on Waste consultation 79% respondents objected to all six official options of MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) and incineration; 69% supported alternative Option 7 which supported unlimited recycling and composting, with no MBT or incineration.
The county's PFI bid in May 2007, including a controversial incinerator at Rivenhall, was delayed because ECC had to demonstrate public support. A widely-condemned misleading and simplistic leaflet was sent to all Essex householders in 2008. Only 1% of residents responded to the questionnaire yet this is used to support the latest PFI bid.
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator for Colchester & NE Essex FoE said:
"This county council plan will destroy half our valuable resources for thirty years at a cost of around £8000 for each council tax payer. They even admit it is more costly than the 'Do Minimum' option! They haven't compared it to a 'Do Maximum' option. Surely it would be better to invest in more recycling and composting instead over the next decade?
Government-funded WRAP have released research which shows that it is cheaper for councils to have separated kerbside collections for all materials and food waste. This brings in high prices for quality recyclate for our UK reprocessors. It is the commingled (mixed) collections which the county council is promoting in wheelie bins or plastic sacks which contaminate materials. They also cost more and waste more energy.
Defra strongly supports local Anaerobic Digestion plants for separately-collected food waste and agricultural slurries run by local farmers - Germany has 2,500 AD plants while the UK only had 23 last year. A new National Grid report says that if the biogas from AD is used for domestic heating it could provide heating for nearly half of the UK's homes.
As for methane in landfill, the majority has been drawn off for energy at landfill sites across the UK. We should now collect most of the biodegradable garden waste, paper, card and foodwaste for recycling and composting and stop landfilling it where it creates methane.
We are currently recycling and composting a mere 43% in Essex. If we recycled only 60% by 2020, Government figures say that half of that 40% residual waste could still be biodegradable paper, card, garden and food waste and still comply with the 2020 Landfill Directive reduction requirements. We can do much better than that in ten years can't we?
Surely we should be pleading urgently now for local recycling and composting so that we can massively reduce the waste of our global resources and energy? Tell the county council to dump its waste strategy and PFI bid and get on with it!"
ENDS
