Surrey Liberal Democrats stand firm on county's Waste Plan

3.14.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 7th May 2008

Typical Incinerator Building

Liberal Democrats at Surrey County Council have maintained their strong opposition to the Surrey Waste Plan (SWP), voting against a recommendation to adopt it when it came before the council at its Annual Meeting. The council was being asked to agree to its adoption following a report published by Government inspectors into the public examination of the Plan at the end of 2007. This report declared the plan to be 'sound' but Cllr Sarah Di Caprio, Lib Dem group Environment spokesperson, said the inspectors had pointed to various shortcomings in the plan and they suggested calling for an early review.

"Surrey County Council's PR machine may have put a good spin on the Inspectors' report, but in fact there are several instances where the Inspectors have said action taken by SCC has fallen short of what's required," she said. "One instance is on the Statement of Community Involvement, where the Inspectors said that many residents and interest groups claimed that they had not been consulted properly or their response had not appeared on the public examination website. This certainly rings true with what we have heard."

Cllr Di Caprio called for a timetable to be given on an early review into the plan, but the portfolio holder refused to give a date, saying it depended on 'priorities and resources'. "I have to say that reassuring communities about a waste plan that they will have to live with for the next 20 years is certainly a priority in my book", said Sarah. "Now this plan is adopted, then any planning applications for waste facilities in the county will be approved or otherwise in relation to this plan, so it really is an important decision."

One of the key issues which the Lib Dems have taken a stand on during numerous debates on the Waste Plan has been the undue weighting given to incineration. "We have maintained all along that there was too much emphasis given to a specific technology, underlining to any potential developer coming forward with a proposal that incineration was the most acceptable method for dealing with any waste left over after as much as possible has been 'reduced, reused or recycled'. Technology is moving forward and the council needs to be flexible in its approach to get the right waste treatment for Surrey."

The Inspectors decided in their report that the Waste Policy Statement should be deleted from the Surrey Waste Plan. "This is significant," said Sarah. "The Waste Policy Statement is something again that we have consistently campaigned to have removed from the plan because it set out quite clearly that Surrey County Council's preferred method of waste treatment was 'energy from waste recovery via incineration'. We're extremely pleased the Inspectors agreed with us and hard-working pressure groups like GAIN, that this has no place in a plan which will in effect determine the waste facilities to be built in the county."