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.

It was announced today that the firm May Gurney are the fornt runners to get the coveted £126m waste and recycling contract, ahead of the current providers.  It is expected that councillors will confirm the company as the preferred bidder when they meet sometime in September.

Apart from the harmonisation of waste collection across the Cheshire West and Chester council area there will also be a new kitchen food waste recycling service, wich along with other improvements is expected to take the recycling rate across the borough to over 60% within two years.  You can read the full story on the letsrecycle.com site here.

With this level of recycling being committed to across Cheshire it does rather beg the question as to where the waste for these proposed incinerators is actually going to come from.  Given this latest announcement the one thing we can be certain of is that it won’t be from round here!

Knutsford residents are set to receive a new Silver recycling bin which will be used to collect all dry recyclable materials including a wide range of plastics.  The bins are due to be rolled out from September 12th 2011 and will bring Knutsford into line with other areas in Cheshire East Council.

As Cheshire East achieved a recycling rate of just under 50% in 2009/10 it is hoped that the introduction of this new bin will mean that recycling rates can rise even further throughout the County.  With the National average recycling rate being around 40% it means that the North West can once again become a trail blazer for the rest of the UK.

Whilst these great recycling rates and improved recycling services are good news in their own right, it’s even better news for those campaigning against the proposed Covanta incinerator in Middlewich, as it once again underlines the basic flaw in the plan which is that there will never be sufficient material to burn to make the plant worthwhile.  The more the people of Cheshire recycle the less material that can end up in an incinerator.

Campaigners in Runcorn against the massive 850,000 tonne incinerator at Weston Point are up in arms over the latest twist in the saga of this incinerator.  The firm behind it, Ineos, want to increase the amount of refuse it carries by road from 85,000 to 480,000 tonnes a year, despite the lower figure being a firm commitment at the time of the planning application.

The reason they now want this change is that there are two linked issues which mean they cannot bring the waste in by rail as previously planned.  The first issue is that there is insufficient waste within the North West to be fed into the plant by rail, and secondly there is a lack of rail head availability at any of the other likely waste sources around the country which could potentially supply them with waste by rail.  This, they say, leaves them no option other than to bring in the waste by road.

Campaigners are furious over this ‘u-turn’ and are determined to stop it, and efforts on their part means that currently the number of Halton councillors objecting to this has risen from 8 to 16, along with the support of two local MP’s.  Despite this there is still a recommendation on the table for the planning committee to approve this change.

The lesson for campaigners all around the country is that you cannot believe what you are told at any point of the planning stage, as once planning permission is given it is almost impossible to stop any changes.

Campaigners in Northwich and Middlewich are watching these developments with interest as in both areas the transport issue is high on the agenda, but more importantly the revelation that Ineos is finding it impossible to source sufficient waste to fuel their plant from with the North West must cast severe doubts over claims by both Tata and Covanta that they are looking to build these plants to deal with local waste.  If Ineos, 15 miles away, cannot find sufficient waste to fuel their as yet unfinished plant, where do Tata and Covanta think they will be able to find it from?  I think we should be told.

CHAIN has received many requests for comments on the result of the judicial review initiated by Cheshire West and Chester Council and Cheshire East Council into the decision by the Government to withdraw funding for their joint municipal waste management plans. In response, we are releasing the following statement:-

The decision is a serious setback to the plans of TATA and Covanta to build waste incinerators in this area. The reason given by the Government for stopping the PFI funds in October 2010 was that there is already sufficient planned waste treatment capacity in Cheshire to meet EU landfill targets until at least 2020. This has now been supported following a legal challenge. We anticipate that this will be fully taken into account by the Government in the public inquiries currently underway into both waste incinerator proposals. There is also the hope that TATA and Covanta will stop claiming that their monster plants are about avoiding landfill and own up about their real motives which are simply to make huge profits from burning rubbish from other parts of the UK at the expense of the health and well being of our community. Quite simply, their incinerators are not needed and not wanted in Cheshire.