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 

VEOLIA COMMUNITY LIAISON GROUP STARTS THIS THURSDAY !!!!!!!!!!!!

Has anybody else received an email from VEOLIA saying that the first Community Liaison Meeting is on THURSDAY 2nd of February?


Even though the email the chair of No2 Incinerator received didn’t have even a the name of the venue in it we have ascertained that the meeting is to be held at

RICHMOND HILL COMMUNITY CENTRE. 7PM THURSDAY 2nd FEBRUARY.

Call us conspiracy theorists – but strangely enough the Inner East Area Committee is on the same evening – starting at 5pm at Civic Hall. So non of our elected councillors will be able to get there on time and neither will No2 Incinerator as we never miss the Inner East as it is vital to keep abreast with what our councillors are deciding on our behalf. Especially as a papers are being presented on health in East Leeds, Policing Priorities (and no doubt cuts) and a very interesting paper written by the area management team about priorities for 2012 - 2013.

If you haven’t received notification of this liaison group meeting and like us thought you had like us signed up for the community consultation – ring them on this freephone number and let them know how you feel.



0800 085 8980

A days notice of a community meeting is insulting – but so is building a huge Incinerator in our ward. Is it a sign of things to come........... not if we all pull together AND COMPLAIN.


Sarah Covell, No2 Incinerator.  

Shocking..

Last week, the preferred bidder for the new incinerator in East Leeds, as well as the - by default - "preferred" location, were finally unveiled to the public.

The company will be Veolia and the site the former Cross Green Markets.

Needless to say this was NOT the news residents in East Leeds were hoping for.

Even though most of the local residents firmly oppose incineration and would prefer that the Council resorted in some other means of dealing with household waste, means such as more recycling for example, there is no doubt that ALL residents of Cross Green, East End Park and Osmonthorpe are appalled with the final choice of location, the nearest of the two "preferred" sites to housing.

With its choice, Leeds City Council shows a blatant disregard for the feelings and needs of the locality and a cynical approach to governance.

Moreover, it seems, Leeds City Council might end up regretting its choice for reasons other than the effect on the health and well being of the local population ( which, obviously, is not their first concern..).

Veolia, has been criticised by a number of different sources and for a number of different reasons, from human rights abuses in Palestine to poor safety record and for posing a financial risk.

Some of the arguments, we are reproducing bellow from the site http://wastedfood.co.uk

28 reasons to be against the Leeds Incinerator




1)Incineration burns material that could be recycled.



2)Leeds should recycle all 7 main types of plastic and glass. There is some debate as to the best method for processing textiles.



3)Incineration depresses recycling rates, several UK and EU studies have shown this.



4)The company chosen for the 25year PFI contract can only make profit if sufficient waste is burnt. The Sheffield incinerator recently had to apply for planning permission to burn waste from outside of Sheffield. Therefore the taxpayer may end up subsidising a company to burn waste from outside of Leeds.



5)Recycling provides more jobs than incineration and helps reduce the UK trade deficit.



6)Veolia have nearly been bankrupt within the last 10 years. Veolia is suffering from financial problems and recently had to end operations in 37 countries! Its share price is currently lower than the last time it nearly went bankrupt.



7)Veolia have a dubious safety record. Within the past 10 years several UK Veolia employees have been injured and two have died. They have been fined almost £500000 in the UK within the last 10 years and additional fines across the world.



8)Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) and flue/filter remains will be produced. 10-20% of material after incineration is still landfilled or has to processed further within Yorkshire. This involves extra transport or landfill.



9)Incineration will create particulate matter (PM) , NO2, Dioxins and various nano-particles which affects human health. UK resident life expectancy is shortened by several months due to PM.



10)Several studies have shown increased toxicity or amounts of carcinogenic compounds near incinerators.



11)Recycling rates in Leeds are 40%, this is woeful compared to similar sized cities. The best in the UK is currently a 70% recycling rate. It is likely that cities will improve on this 70% figure.



12)A food waste collection was initiated within Rothwell and has proved successful. This should be widened across the city to create economies of scale. The food remains should be used to generate power and/or compost.

13)Less than 50% of UK councils have a weekly black bin collection. This black bin could easily be changed to a green collection.



14)The council have secured £68M for a final waste solution, surely this money could be better spent on Anaerobic Digestion, Mechanical sorting plants or increasing the range of recyclables.



15)The incinerator(s) will be 42m high with a 65m tall chimney. One or both incinerators will be visible from parts of Beeston, Belle Isle, Burmatofts, Cavalier Hill, City Centre, Halton, Holbeck, Hunslet, Osmonthorpe, Middleton, Richmond Hill, Robin Hood, Rothwell, Temple Newsham, Woodhouse Hill and elsewhere.



16)The online petition has several hundred signatures and many groups oppose incineration. http://tinyurl.com/leedsincinerator In addition there is several hundred written signatures.



17)While the incinerator will generate electricity it produces twice as much Co2 as burning fossil fuels. There are much cleaner ways to generate energy. In addition landfill sites, while not ideal, often burn the methane produced from waste. Ideally Anaerobic Digestion etc should be used to process food or other wastes. Recycling also reduces the CO2 involved with mining/drilling. Organisations like CO2 sense and the carbon trust could finance these projects.



18)The incinerator will not help the council’s commitment to reduce C02 by 40% by 2020/1 compared to 2008/9.



19)UK & EU pollution and environmental legislation are becoming more stringent and could easily undermine a 25 year PFI incinerator.



20)Veolia has been involved with projects within Israel. The worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel has many supporters. Within Leeds the Palestine Soldarity Campaign (PSC) has been vocal.



21)PFI deals are not cost effective in the long term and cost more than if the government directly borrowed the money.



22)Alternative funding for Anaerobic digestion or other facilities may be available through the Carbon trust and CO2sense.



23)Labour currently have the majority in the council. Despite opposing incineration while in opposition they are currently supporting it.



24)There is now a fight to stop a 2nd incinerator proposed by Biffa.



25)The bidding process is down to two bidders. Certain councillors fear they will be sued. However Councils in Hull and East Riding found last minute reasons. Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has even prepared a £20000 fund to fight a county council decision to build an incinerator. Several councils have recently found reasons to prevent incineration including: Cheshire East and Nottingham.



26)Traffic will be focussed on to one location.



27) It maybe a weak argument but incinerators are planned for Harrogate and Bradford, therefore there maybe overcapacity in the waste network.


To the above, we wish, at this stage, to add at least one more: the fact that WE DO NOT WANT IT!

Richmond Hill Community Forum

Richmond Hill Community Forum
Monday 6.00pm
19 September 2011
(NO VENUE ANNOUNCED YET)


Once again Waste Management is on the agenda for this meeting but this time it is listed as Waste Management Facility.  Does this mean that the decision we have been awaiting regarding the naming on the lucky winner of the PFI 'jackpot' has been made, we just don't know?


We know that last time they did not turn up but this time we expect them to, when a venue is finally announced.  The fact that the date of the meeting has been changed and that no venue has yet been confirmed, even at this late date, would lead those of us with suspicious minds to suggest that this meeting is not meant to be well attended - but we hope that that will not be case.


As soon as the venue is confirmed we will put it on the Blog, Facebook and Twitter and emailed to our friends so what this space.


We need to turn up and ask the awkward questions about this facility, its costs, its effects and its future that the residents of Leeds deserve to have asked

Well that's the election out of the way - now back to business

A nasty and rather bad-tempered bye-election campaign in our ward has resulted in a win for Asghar Khan, the Labour Party candidate.

Both of the parties likely to win here tried to use the anti-incinerator campaign to their advantage but neither would rule out the possibility of an incinerator here in the end.

We have been told by the winner Asghar Khan that he is personally not in favour of an incinerator at Cross Green but then neither are the Lib Dems, hardly surprising really since any other statement would have guaranteed the loss of a huge numbers of votes locally as they must surely have heard the very strong and vocal opposition here to the plan. 

However we may still end up with a plant there or at Knostrop even if all the councillors in this ward and most in the wards surrounding that are likely to be directly affected don’t agree because at the end of the day it will be the decision of the whole council which will decide the matter and other councillor’s first concern may very well be “well so long as they don’t build it in my nice area, what does it matter?”

We are repeatedly told that this is/was a heavily industrialised area in the past so does this mean that the not inconsiderable numbers of people currently packed into this area don’t count? Can you put what you like here now regardless of the effect on the area or its residents because these people have been treated badly in the past so it is alright to ignore them and dismiss their justifiable concerns now?

We, of course, don’t agree but this is not a NIMBY issue for us, we don’t want to inflict an incinerator on any other area of the city either nor do we don’t want to mire ourselves, our children or our grandchildren in debt paying for an outdated technology to burn scarce and valuable resources in an unsustainable way.

We ourselves have suggested several schemes to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE waste together with schemes to get more kerbside collections of specific waste streams with a carrot and stick approach which would reduce even further the amount of waste which would have to be burned or sent to landfill.

We know that the Lib Dems spent almost £1M in getting the project to May 2009 (FOI request) and they themselves say that the Labour controlled council has or is going to spend £1M, though they don't provide proof of this figure, but with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (trying to stop the contract going to Veolia) raising legal questions and the chance that Veolia will appeal if stopped from bidding this whole thing could end up costing the Council Tax payers of Leeds a not so small fortune trying to back what we are totally convinced is the wrong horse.

Despite the fact that the plans are well advanced and that huge amounts of money have already been spent we feel that this is the wrong option financed in the wrong way and we will keep on campaigning to stop this expensive mistake from being made.

It is our hope that now the bye-election is over that this matter can be discussed in a more adult and sensible way. NO2Incinerator is not FOR or AGAINST Labour; it is not FOR or AGAINST the Lib Dems it is AGAINST INCINERATION! We will not stop our campaign on this matter, despite attempts to put pressure on us, to do so.  We will continue to gather information, publish views on this subject and hope to change the minds of those with the power to stop this project since we firmly believe, on so many different levels, that incineration is a 19th century technology that does not hold the solution to the 21st century's waste problem in the long term.

Report from the Richmond Hill Forum 8 March 2011

Waste Treatment Facility update

The Waste management team tried to answer some of the concerns of residents, as did a representative of the Environment Agency and Planning department of LCC. We think it is fair to say though that there was no meeting of minds on the safety, advisability or necessity of this project.

We were told that the main cause of pollution in our area is the York Road [you will remember that the Inner East Link Road has just opened in our area – great that will be a big help with air quality!]. Though the EA will monitor air quality in our area, and if they think the project would raise emissions above presently accepted safe levels they could refuse a permit. However we do not know how they would assess the effect of so many projects coming into the area at once, 2 incinerators with the associated traffic together with the added extra traffic generated by the proposed warehousing and housing developments in the area is bound to have a substantial effect.

It was clear from what was said at the meeting last night that the PFI Incinerator plan is still going full steam ahead though the winning bidder looks like being announced in the autumn of this year and not the summer as was previously stated.

We were informed that a robust challenge has been made to one of the bidders, Veolia ES Aurora Ltd, because of serious concerns regarding their safety record globally and because of their association with the Israeli state in occupied Palestine which has caused UN and international condemnation of the company. We were told that this matter has been referred for legal oversight but we will keep you informed of any further information.

Full report of the Richmond Hill Forum