Stop the Yorkshire Incinerator!
Plans to send waste from York and North Yorkshire to an incinerator at Allerton Park were rubberstamped by both Councils at the end of 2010. The contract will cost an estimated £1.4 billion over its lifetime. With Council tax rises capped, City of York Council will have to find an extra £750,000 of cuts each year for five years to pay for this. And all for a plan which looks woefully out of date before the first brick has been laid.
The Councils have been working on these plans since 2002. During this time the ‘zero waste’ policy that we’ve been championing since 2006 has been steadily gaining ground, and waste volumes have continued to fall, in spite of the predictions of the waste strategy teams.
Despite the mounting evidence that the facility is a waste of money, the planning application to build the thing has now been lodged.
Object to the plans now – and join the call for a public inquiry!
See the news article on how to object and call for a public inquiry.
We would like to see the planning application go to public inquiry – which is possible if not probable. This is a winnable battle – applications for incinerators are being thrown out like yesterday’s bathwater all over the UK (like in Derby, Cornwall, Merthyr Tydfil, Nottinghamshire, to name but four). Keep checking back here for the latest news.
Have you signed the petition yet? If not – do it now!
The Yorkshire Incinerator story in brief…
York and North Yorkshire Councils teamed up over a six year period to commission a waste incinerator. The process has been conducted behind closed doors, with little consultation or accountability. Even the Council admitted that the public consultation was a failure. Hardly anyone saw it, and both options presented involved… building an incinerator!
At the last minute, before the change of government, the Waste Partnership managed to secure a £65 million PFI loan, and on June 29th 2010 they announced the plans for the incinerator.
The plan was conceived at a time when recycling 60% of our waste seemed – to the officers devising it – totally improbable. Yet 68% is happening elsewhere in the UK now, and it will happen here soon. We are in the middle of a revolution in waste management, but this plan is stuck firmly in the 20th century.
Both Councils have now given their approval for the incinerator. This is not a surprise, though it’s hard not to be slightly disappointed. Incineration emerged as a preferred option without any democratic consultation in 2005, and despite the pre-election pledges of the ruling York Lib Dems, it proved unstoppable. The plan will cost York and North Yorkshire around £1.5bn over its lifetime. A zero-waste strategy – which is what we would like to see – has never been costed.
You can read more on this site about what’s wrong with the plans, why we don’t like incinerators (and what we’d do instead), and how we got to this point.
You can still get involved and stop this madness right now. Incineration is bad for the environment and risks your health. There are better alternatives to landfill and to incineration.
Download & distribute campaign materials: our Zero waste vs Incineration campaign leaflet – and get in touch if you’d like to help us.
