Nothing to do with Incinerators - but very good to sing along to
Residents of East Leeds say NO to both proposed waste incinerators
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Top Secret & Confidential
Over recent weeks No2 Incinerator has been approached by so many people (including councillors, various political parties and most likely the occasional dog) we have decided to reveal in all its glory one of the SECRET (shhhhhh don't tell and we wont either) appendices to the proposed contract LCC are going to sign on THE CITIZENS OF LEEDS behalf. ...........
Happy reading of pages 1 - 4 and do let us know what you think in the comments section below.............
The rest will follow shortly .................................8 more pages to go
Happy reading of pages 1 - 4 and do let us know what you think in the comments section below.............
The rest will follow shortly .................................8 more pages to go
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Just a note to let you know...............
We are currently writing a new piece for tomorrow..................it will be called
"Its my (Labour) Party and i'll lie if i want to"
We have uncovered some facts you will love to read about ............................Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Who is sleeping with Whom ?
Or alternatively ............
And just a little snippet to finish with :- strangely enough the site to be used at Cross Green has been valued by Leeds City Council at £1,800,000 - if that piece of land had tipped the scales at £2 million it would have to have gone to the government for approval. Guess who valued the land ? An independent surveyor ? Nope .....Richard Fenton of Leeds City Council - whom we can only assume knows what side his bread is buttered.
Would You Do Business with this Company for the next 28 years ?
After reading this I suspect your answer will be NO !!!! (unless of course you are a labour councillor in Leeds)
Veolia - the world’s biggest water utility by sales, has been forced into a €5bn fire sale of assets as its senior managers attempt to turn round the fortunes of the struggling company by breaking decisively with its expansionist past.
If a company was being forced to to sell FIVE BILLION EUROS worth of assets to allow it to remain afloat – would you go into business with them ? NO!
If they planned to quit half of the 77 countries they do business in after “problems” - those problems include huge law suits from communities and investors and FRAUD ? NO!
If the share price was lower now than in 2003 when they nearly went bankrupt – would you do business with them? NO!
And just to show we havent forgotten about Biffa – they too have announced massive debts and are probably soon to be taken over. And according to the article below they might be bought out by Veolia – which gets us even more confused.com .
It does beg the question :- Who in the waste management world is sleeping with whom?
All in all its quite a mess our councilors have got us into .......................
And just a little snippet to finish with :- strangely enough the site to be used at Cross Green has been valued by Leeds City Council at £1,800,000 - if that piece of land had tipped the scales at £2 million it would have to have gone to the government for approval. Guess who valued the land ? An independent surveyor ? Nope .....Richard Fenton of Leeds City Council - whom we can only assume knows what side his bread is buttered.
Friday, 27 July 2012
VEOLIA LOSE PLANNING APPLICATION
Plans to build a waste incinerator on a former steelworks site in south Wales have been refused in part due to fears about the possible impact on a nearby regeneration scheme.
Newport City Council’s planning committee also refused the full application for the processor on the former Llanwern Steelworks site due to concerns about the ecological and transport impact of the development.
Members went against the advice of officers, who had recommended that the application by Veolia Environmental Services be approved, to vote eight to one against it.
According to the officers’ report, the energy-from-waste facility would process about 256,000 tonnes of waste with the heat and power generated used to power the nearby Tata Steelworks.
But a Newport City Council spokeswoman said: "The council’s planning committee voted to refuse planning permission to Veolia for the development of an energy from waste facility due to the impact it would have on ecology in the area, transport implications and also the potential effect it would have on the Glan Llyn development."
Property firm Savills had objected to the application on behalf of developer St Modwen because of fears about the impact on the Glan Llyn regeneration project nearby.
The redevelopment is being carried out by St Modwen and Persimmon, which have outline permission to build 4,000 homes.
Savills, whose objections included concerns about the visual impact, air quality, and noise, stated, the report said, that the impact of the waste development on Glan Llyn "has been seriously underestimated and overlooked".
However, planning officers said St Modwen’s fears were "not bourne out through experiences at other sites".
Concerns about the impact on nearby protected landscapes had been raised by Gwent Wildlife Trust and several community councils.
A Veolia spokesperson said the firm was "disappointed at the decision".
She said: "Our planning application represents a major long-term investment in Newport and has been designed to be sympathetic with the local landscape and environment whilst supporting the further development of the steelworks site."
The spokeswoman said the "sustainable energy" provided would have reduced the site's carbon footprint and the development would have provided 45 permanent posts plus about 350 jobs during construction.
She added: "We are pleased that Newport City Council planning officers recommended the application for approval and will now study the details of the decision and reasons for refusal. In the meantime we reserve our position on an appeal."
The council spokeswoman said Veolia could lodge an appeal with the Welsh government within six months.
Newport City Council’s planning committee also refused the full application for the processor on the former Llanwern Steelworks site due to concerns about the ecological and transport impact of the development.
Members went against the advice of officers, who had recommended that the application by Veolia Environmental Services be approved, to vote eight to one against it.
According to the officers’ report, the energy-from-waste facility would process about 256,000 tonnes of waste with the heat and power generated used to power the nearby Tata Steelworks.
But a Newport City Council spokeswoman said: "The council’s planning committee voted to refuse planning permission to Veolia for the development of an energy from waste facility due to the impact it would have on ecology in the area, transport implications and also the potential effect it would have on the Glan Llyn development."
Property firm Savills had objected to the application on behalf of developer St Modwen because of fears about the impact on the Glan Llyn regeneration project nearby.
The redevelopment is being carried out by St Modwen and Persimmon, which have outline permission to build 4,000 homes.
Savills, whose objections included concerns about the visual impact, air quality, and noise, stated, the report said, that the impact of the waste development on Glan Llyn "has been seriously underestimated and overlooked".
However, planning officers said St Modwen’s fears were "not bourne out through experiences at other sites".
Concerns about the impact on nearby protected landscapes had been raised by Gwent Wildlife Trust and several community councils.
A Veolia spokesperson said the firm was "disappointed at the decision".
She said: "Our planning application represents a major long-term investment in Newport and has been designed to be sympathetic with the local landscape and environment whilst supporting the further development of the steelworks site."
The spokeswoman said the "sustainable energy" provided would have reduced the site's carbon footprint and the development would have provided 45 permanent posts plus about 350 jobs during construction.
She added: "We are pleased that Newport City Council planning officers recommended the application for approval and will now study the details of the decision and reasons for refusal. In the meantime we reserve our position on an appeal."
The council spokeswoman said Veolia could lodge an appeal with the Welsh government within six months.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
HOT OFF THE RUMOUR MILL - Part 1 of many....
Due to the political hot potato that the Incinerator currently is we keep getting emails and phone calls from all sorts of people who are happy to tell us “stuff"
So in the interests of CONSULTATION and TRANSPARENCY (two words Leeds City Council & Veolia have no concept of the meaning of) we thought it might be good to share what we have heard over the next very important weeks. .........
Rumour No1.
Cllr Ron Grahame (labour) seems to think in order to STOP the incinerator he needs to stay on the plans panel and “fight it from within” , he will NOT speak publicly against it, will NOT sign a form to force a referendum on the issue and will NOT leave the labour party and stand alongside his constituents and support them.He calls this “predetermination” we call it “cowardice”.
So Ron we thought we might show you some basic physics.................. nothing too complicated mind you!!!!!!!
No2 Incinerators Guide
How to Move a Wheelbarrow.
BUT........................
So we can assume that Cllr Ron Grahame is merely trying to get No2 Incinerator to call the dogs off.
NO WAY - you are either with your community or against it - one foot in both camps will not work.
Friday, 22 June 2012
Full article sent to Yorkshire Evening Post 22nd June 2012
As a local community activist and campaigner I have witnessed with varying degrees of disbelief, incredulity and anger the way my local community’s opinion has been ridden over rough shod by LCC in regard to the waste strategy for Leeds.
Inner East Leeds residents in particular have discovered that the word “consultation” is one that elected members and officers of Leeds City Council clearly do not understand the meaning of ! Consultation in more affluent areas of the city means asking a neighbourhoods opinion and taking its views into constructive consideration when planning infrastructure. In Inner East Leeds it consists of telling you what they are going to do and then using the insulting statement frequently repeated by Cllr Mark Dobson “We are where we are” to carry on regardless of a community’s express wishes and valid concerns.
There cannot be many residents in Leeds who would wish for energy from waste incinerator in their back yard or have the particles of pollution floating overhead as will happen in Colton, Seacroft, Swillington, KIppax and further afield. Even if that community is a super output area, have the highest levels of asthma, lung cancer, COPD, unemployment, NEETS, low educational attainment, high teenage pregnancy, alcoholism and smoking rates in the entire city which means along with other mitigating factors that a resident in East End Park / Cross Green will die an average of 10 years earlier than somebody in a leafy north Leeds suburb.
Our community may be officially classified as socially and economically deprived but it most certainly isn’t stupid; we know this facility will blight our community forever, force house prices to lower and keep many owner occupiers in negative equity unable to move away from a facility which they believe will damage their families health and wellbeing. For example:- If the emissions from the stack are Inert, why does it have to be 90metres high? If the by-products of combustion are so innocuous , why is the fly ash considered so hazardous it has to be buried underground in disused salt mines? If the process is so safe why do you need environmental permits and constant monitoring by the Environment agency?
Leeds sells itself as an innovative city, so why in the management of waste disposal is it so backward looking? No2 Incinerator can evidence with the councils own figures that waste volumes in the city are decreasing year on year. So why commit ratepayers into a 25 year Private Finance Initiative Contract that will tether Leeds to a company with an horrendous health and safety record, that has been cited by the United Nations as being complicit in war crimes in Palestine and that is being sued for contract and environmental breaches in the USA?
Think also about technology which is changing rapidly – 15 years ago a mobile phone was the size and weight of a house brick. Today a mobile smart phone has millions of times more functionality is a thousand times cheaper and fits in the palm of your hand.
This innovation is also true of people’s attitude to waste disposal. 5 years ago a plastic carrier bag in a supermarket was a free, today charging for bags for life is all the fashion. 10 years ago produce was double wrapped and the wrappers disposed of in a black bin, today all packaging carries labels to show how and where to dispose of your waste, what is recyclable and what isn’t. Even my local chemist in East End Park offers an asthma inhaler recycling facility which 1year ago would have raised a chuckle of disbelief.
And with regard to the much flaunted figure of £200 million if nothing is done. Nobody is suggesting that, but look at the facts. In 2011/12 LCC reduced the annual budget in a single swoop by £90 million. £200 million over 25 years is only £800,000 a year, peanuts in a budget of many millions annually, especially as they claim the delays in the project are already costing them over £350,000 for each years delay.
So how can we reduce our waste? From January 2011 to 2102 I kept every menu and item of junk mail that fell unsolicited through my letter box, a total weight of 7kgs. No2 incinerator will shortly provide “No2 Menu Stickers” for letter boxes in East Leeds which will we believe have the potential to reduce waste in Leeds by hundreds of tonnes a year, which will alleviate some of the alleged deficit in one proactive voluntary community funded initiative.
It is now the time to demonstrate to our local labour councillors and labour controlled authority by our actions that the community of East Leeds stands at the front of the anti incineration campaign, they may follow us if they choose to, but I and many others will not trust them again to support and value the opinions of citizens they so blatantly misrepresent, by saying one thing in public and voting another.
You only have to look at the way Cllr Ron Grahame promised our local fire fighters in Dec 2011 that he would oppose the cuts in provision and yet in one short sentence “ Sorry boys I have been whipped” he turned his back on them and voted to close 2 stations in East Leeds, reduce the number of operational fire fighters in our area by 24 and then have the audacity to say not five months later that WY Fire and Rescue was stretched to breaking point. (But strangely enough the new station will be closer to his home, so he won’t be impacted by longer call out times)
One of the qualifications it seems for being a councillor is a short term memory that a gold fish would be proud of. Actually I suspect it’s the only way they can face themselves in a mirror to shave each morning, and that’s just the women!
NO2 Incinerator has steadfastly and resolutely for the past three years opposed incineration as a method of residual waste disposal. Our goal of a zero waste community will not waiver regardless of the political party in power at Civic Hall. We will oppose the planning application to the very best of our ability and we will lead the opposition to the planning application from the front, and with sheer Yorkshire grit and single mindedness and in solidarity with our fellow anti- incineration organisations we will win!
If it means chaining myself to railings and acts of civil disobedience so be it. It’s time for a 50 year old grandma to roll up her sleeves and show Leeds City Council “This waste ain’t for burning”
Sarah Covell (aged 50)
Resident of East End Park
Blog - http://no2incinerator.blogspot.com/
Contact No2incinerator@gmail.com
Tel: 075308939354
Inner East Leeds residents in particular have discovered that the word “consultation” is one that elected members and officers of Leeds City Council clearly do not understand the meaning of ! Consultation in more affluent areas of the city means asking a neighbourhoods opinion and taking its views into constructive consideration when planning infrastructure. In Inner East Leeds it consists of telling you what they are going to do and then using the insulting statement frequently repeated by Cllr Mark Dobson “We are where we are” to carry on regardless of a community’s express wishes and valid concerns.
There cannot be many residents in Leeds who would wish for energy from waste incinerator in their back yard or have the particles of pollution floating overhead as will happen in Colton, Seacroft, Swillington, KIppax and further afield. Even if that community is a super output area, have the highest levels of asthma, lung cancer, COPD, unemployment, NEETS, low educational attainment, high teenage pregnancy, alcoholism and smoking rates in the entire city which means along with other mitigating factors that a resident in East End Park / Cross Green will die an average of 10 years earlier than somebody in a leafy north Leeds suburb.
Our community may be officially classified as socially and economically deprived but it most certainly isn’t stupid; we know this facility will blight our community forever, force house prices to lower and keep many owner occupiers in negative equity unable to move away from a facility which they believe will damage their families health and wellbeing. For example:- If the emissions from the stack are Inert, why does it have to be 90metres high? If the by-products of combustion are so innocuous , why is the fly ash considered so hazardous it has to be buried underground in disused salt mines? If the process is so safe why do you need environmental permits and constant monitoring by the Environment agency?
Leeds sells itself as an innovative city, so why in the management of waste disposal is it so backward looking? No2 Incinerator can evidence with the councils own figures that waste volumes in the city are decreasing year on year. So why commit ratepayers into a 25 year Private Finance Initiative Contract that will tether Leeds to a company with an horrendous health and safety record, that has been cited by the United Nations as being complicit in war crimes in Palestine and that is being sued for contract and environmental breaches in the USA?
Think also about technology which is changing rapidly – 15 years ago a mobile phone was the size and weight of a house brick. Today a mobile smart phone has millions of times more functionality is a thousand times cheaper and fits in the palm of your hand.
This innovation is also true of people’s attitude to waste disposal. 5 years ago a plastic carrier bag in a supermarket was a free, today charging for bags for life is all the fashion. 10 years ago produce was double wrapped and the wrappers disposed of in a black bin, today all packaging carries labels to show how and where to dispose of your waste, what is recyclable and what isn’t. Even my local chemist in East End Park offers an asthma inhaler recycling facility which 1year ago would have raised a chuckle of disbelief.
And with regard to the much flaunted figure of £200 million if nothing is done. Nobody is suggesting that, but look at the facts. In 2011/12 LCC reduced the annual budget in a single swoop by £90 million. £200 million over 25 years is only £800,000 a year, peanuts in a budget of many millions annually, especially as they claim the delays in the project are already costing them over £350,000 for each years delay.
So how can we reduce our waste? From January 2011 to 2102 I kept every menu and item of junk mail that fell unsolicited through my letter box, a total weight of 7kgs. No2 incinerator will shortly provide “No2 Menu Stickers” for letter boxes in East Leeds which will we believe have the potential to reduce waste in Leeds by hundreds of tonnes a year, which will alleviate some of the alleged deficit in one proactive voluntary community funded initiative.
It is now the time to demonstrate to our local labour councillors and labour controlled authority by our actions that the community of East Leeds stands at the front of the anti incineration campaign, they may follow us if they choose to, but I and many others will not trust them again to support and value the opinions of citizens they so blatantly misrepresent, by saying one thing in public and voting another.
You only have to look at the way Cllr Ron Grahame promised our local fire fighters in Dec 2011 that he would oppose the cuts in provision and yet in one short sentence “ Sorry boys I have been whipped” he turned his back on them and voted to close 2 stations in East Leeds, reduce the number of operational fire fighters in our area by 24 and then have the audacity to say not five months later that WY Fire and Rescue was stretched to breaking point. (But strangely enough the new station will be closer to his home, so he won’t be impacted by longer call out times)
One of the qualifications it seems for being a councillor is a short term memory that a gold fish would be proud of. Actually I suspect it’s the only way they can face themselves in a mirror to shave each morning, and that’s just the women!
NO2 Incinerator has steadfastly and resolutely for the past three years opposed incineration as a method of residual waste disposal. Our goal of a zero waste community will not waiver regardless of the political party in power at Civic Hall. We will oppose the planning application to the very best of our ability and we will lead the opposition to the planning application from the front, and with sheer Yorkshire grit and single mindedness and in solidarity with our fellow anti- incineration organisations we will win!
If it means chaining myself to railings and acts of civil disobedience so be it. It’s time for a 50 year old grandma to roll up her sleeves and show Leeds City Council “This waste ain’t for burning”
Sarah Covell (aged 50)
Resident of East End Park
Blog - http://no2incinerator.blogspot.com/
Contact No2incinerator@gmail.com
Tel: 075308939354
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