County Council recycling fiasco

The government has called in the county’s plan to build a waste treatment site at Rivenhall - and another Tory flagship runs aground.

Here's how the story was reported in The Braintree and Witham Times, 20 May 2009:

"Government minister Hazel Blears has backed hundreds of residents who opposed a waste facility being built in the countryside. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has called in the proposal for Rivenhall Airfield, allowing a public inquiry to be held. The controversial waste management site could be binned if a Government inspector backs opponents to the scheme. Essex County Council (ECC) granted planning permission last month, despite only one favourable representation out of more than 800 made during public consultations. A letter sent on behalf of Mrs Blears to ECC said: The Secretary of State is of the opinion that the application is one that she ought to decide herself because she considers that the proposal may conflict with national policies on important matters."

• The Tories have spent years advocating 2 big waste treatment plants as the way to deal with waste in the future
• They have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in real money and in officer time in pursuing this policy and the taxpayer will now have to finance a public enquiry
• They have ridden roughshod over the objections of local people and local councils and opposition parties, led by the Lib Dems, who have campaigned for a change of policy
• This is a flagship policy of the Tory administration, now in shreds, and it’s left the Tories pushing plan B, which is essentially the Lib Dem view that if the county gives financial incentives to boroughs/districts to increase recycling, there will be no need for big treatment plants. The Tories are now doing this and Rochford, for example, has increased its recycling dramatically
• This is evidence that the Tories are incompetence and incapable of making major decisions
• The whole life of the contract is worth around £5billion

Sid Cumberland Rayleigh Liberal Democrats, May 2009