With the Public Inquiry due to start on October 11th the Inspector has issued the Draft Programme for the Inquiry. Please note that this is only a ‘draft’ schedule and could be superseded at any time.  If it is we will do our best to place it on our website.

To see the schedule simply click here.

CHAIN have today issued a Press Release about the hidden health dangers of allowing TATA to build an incinerator in Northwich. Click here to read the press release.

About five years ago we set up a PO box as a convenient way to let people get in touch with us and more importantly to allow a simple way of returning the petition forms to us. This worked really well and although it cost us around £50 a year to provide the PO box we felt this was an investment worth making. Each year this cost has been paid for by one of our members as a contribution as we don’t have unlimited funds and rely on donations to do the work we do.  Naturally we have been vary grateful for your support in this area.

For the first three years the price remained around the £50 mark with slight increases year on year, but last year it shot up from £56 in 09/10 to £95 in 10/11. We thought long and hard before renewing but felt that it served everybody better if we spent the money. Once again this fee was paid by the kind contribution from a supporter.

This years renewal has now fallen onto the doormat and we are sad to tell you that we will not be able to renew this essential service. For some reason best known to themselves Royal Mail have seen fit to raise the cost of this service to £170 a year.  This is for the staff  putting all our mail in a box at the sorting office, from which we have to go and collect it.

Despite phone calls to their customer service, Royal Mail have simply been unable to provide any justification for this 300% rise in just two years, and as such we have told them  that we will refuse to pay this fee.  They have lost another customer and we await with interest any response from them to our complaint which we have lodged.  Ironically if they do choose to write to us about the complaint, by the time they do the PO box will have been ceased so we’re not sure how they will deliver the letter!

In the meantime should you wish to get in touch with us please feel free to phone us on 0845 956 9696 or email us by clicking here.

News is emerging that Lanarkshire Council in Scotland have awarded their long term 25 year waste contract to Viridor but it is based on them being able to build the controversial Dovesdale Farm incinerator.  The plan is currently under judicial review and is not going to be decided until October however the council have decided to go ahead and award the contract anyway.  The fact that Viridor may not be able to process the waste, at a plant that may yet be refused planning permission, doesn’t seem to have got in the way of the contract decision.

In a stunning show of Nimbyism, the Council go on to state that “No incineration of South Lanarkshire Council material will take place in South Lanarkshire – it will be treated in Runcorn”.

We’re sure that the poor beleaguered residents of Weston Point and Runcorn will sleep better now that they know that they will be burning waste from Scotland.

Whatever happened to the proximity principle?  Whatever happend to the basic planning rules that dictated that waste should be treated as close to the source as possible?  How can it possibly be in anyone’s interest, apart from the incinerator companies, to transport waste over 200 miles just to burn it? It’s a poor decision that will leave a bitter taste in the mouth of Runcorn residents.