Liberal Democrats Keep Up the Pressure on Waste

At a lengthy council meeting yesterday (Tuesday 17th), the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council once again raised their concerns about SCC's waste disposal policies.

Proposing an amendment which called on the Council to remove the undue weighting given to incineration in its policies, the Lib Dems argued that once again the ruling Conservative administration was showing a clear preference for that technology to the exclusion of other, newer, technologies like Mechanical & Biological Treatment (MBT).

The amendment, which was lost, was part of a debate on the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS), which Council members were being asked to adopt. The JMWMS is the result of all 11 Surrey districts & boroughs working with the County on a future strategy for dealing with waste. It also has feeding into it 11 waste collection 'action plans' from each of the districts & boroughs and one waste disposal plan from Surrey County Council. It is this waste disposal plan that the Lib Dems were objecting to, because it calls for at least two 'Energy from Waste Incineration' plants in the County and names the preferred sites - Clockhouse Brickworks, Capel and Trumps Farm, Longcross. Charlton Lane, Shepperton is also a possibility.

Lib Dem Environment Spokesperson Sarah Di Caprio (Guildford South East) said that while her party accepted the JMWMS as a very good framework for improving recycling and the minimisation of waste - Sarah was herself an active member of the consultative board putting the framework together - the problem lay in its association with the disposal plan. "This plan, which Surrey's Executive call a "vital part" of the JMWMS, is just too focused on one technology, namely incineration, and names preferred sites, basically preventing any real debate or discussion on the subject.

"The waste disposal plan too has been agreed by the Executive and not by the County Council members - there has been no opportunity for the full council of 80 members to discuss it and it is now being sent to the Secretary of State as Surrey's plan for dealing with its waste."

The JMWMS is currently going before the 11 districts & boroughs and while all are expected to adopt the strategy, many are voicing their concerns about the content of the disposal plan. "All along, the Lib Dems have urged against the premature and wholesale adoption of a treatment like incineration because we don't want the County to be tied to a technology that by the time the first plant is operational - that probably won't be till 2012 - will be outdated," said Sarah.

"This is a subject we will continue to pressurise the Executive on," she said. "It is essential that we get the right solution to deal with Surrey's waste."