No2incinerator

What a lovely little tune V-E-O-L-I-A

2012-09-22T17:16:00.000+01:00

Nothing to do with Incinerators - but very good to sing along to

Top Secret & Confidential

2012-09-18T19:16:00.001+01:00

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

Just a note to let you know...............

2012-09-08T16:16:00.002+01:00

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 ............................

Who is sleeping with Whom ?

2012-09-05T20:27:00.000+01:00

Or alternatively ............

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?

click here to access article

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.

VEOLIA LOSE PLANNING APPLICATION

2012-07-27T10:34:00.002+01:00

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.

HOT OFF THE RUMOUR MILL - Part 1 of many....

2012-07-25T19:15:00.003+01:00

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.

Full article sent to Yorkshire Evening Post 22nd June 2012

2012-06-22T10:05:00.001+01:00

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

No sunshine for the new waste incinerator!!!!

2012-05-14T17:05:00.000+01:00

Veolia have announced that they are intending to submit a planning application for the waste incinerator at Cross Green on 1st June.

The No2 Incinerator and No Incinerator Leeds groups campaigning against the incinerator have seen the plans and model and had this to say.

The building is massive in size and a massive missed opportunity. The building faces south over 60% of it will be in direct sunlight all day. The waste incinerator is designed to produce electricity and is connected direct into the national grid. But Veolia has missed a crucial opportunity to make money for Leeds. The building could have incorporated hundreds of square metres of solar panels in the design.

Solar panels would generate thousands of pounds of revenue per year for Leeds City Council which could be spent on community projects in the local area or across the city.

They would also help the Council meet its CO2 and climate change reduction targets by producing green electricty. They would also provide jobs for local contractors to install. To cap it all the Council have removed the need to apply for planning permission for solar panels on any new buildings in the Aire Valley Enterprise Zone which is right next door to the Cross Green site.

A spokesperson for NIL said "this building is such a missed opportunity, Veolia should go back to the drawing board"

A spokesperson for NO2 Incinerator said

" We hear constantly of this buildings design being innovative and marking the gateway to East Leeds. This building will also mark an area of high poverty and deprivation where many people live in fuel poverty. The addition of solar panels would be an extra revenue stream for LCC and in these times of austerity when Inner East Leeds seems to be bearing the brunt of viscous cuts in services we support the call for a revision of the plans for this building"

NIL is a coalition of Leeds based organisations and local residents who oppose waste incineration as a means to deal with residual waste for the following reasons:

1) It reduces the incentive to Reduce Reuse and Recycle and suppresses local recycling rates.

2) Incineration releases Greenhouse Gases - Incineration involves the release of high levels of CO2, the main climate warming gas.

3) There are better and cheaper alternatives to incinerating waste that are more flexible, quicker to implement and better for the environment.

4) Incineration creates toxic emissions and concentrated hazardous ash which has to go to landfill.

5) Incineration poses significant health risks - Although incinerator fumes pass through expensive filter systems, modern incinerators still emit significant levels of NOx and of ultrafine particles. The latter includes nano-particles which are of great concern because they can pass through the lung lining, causing internal inflammation and penetrating to organs. Incinerators also have emissions unlimited by license, during start-up and close-down, and from ash dispersing during transfer to landfill or construction sites.

6) Incinerators tie councils down to long contracts with ongoing demands on the amount of waste that is needed for the incinerator each year.

7) Incinerators often require hundreds of lorry loads of waste to be transported to the incinerators every week which has a detrimental impact on the local community and air quality.

8) Compared to reuse and recycling incinerators create few jobs and little in the way of additional benefits for other companies in the local economy.

For further information contact

NIL David 0113 230 1799

No2 Sarah 07920784958

If you wish to voice your objections in person do feel free to come along to the Richmond Hill Community Forum - Monday 11th June 6pm at East Leeds Working Mens Club. Our ward is now solid labour and we cannot rely on our elected representatives to object to this project on our behalf. We need to demonstrate to them that this project is unnecessary and unsustanable. Come along and make your voice heard.

An Opportunity to Express Your Views

2012-02-10T12:12:00.000+00:00

There have recently been articles in the Yorkshire Evening Post about the Veolia Incinerator to be built at Cross Green. No2 Incinerator are extremely grateful to the YEP journalists who compose these articles as they have always asked our opinion and we have been quoted accurately in the paper as a result.

We may shortly be given an opportunity to write an article in our own words as to why we oppose the building of such a plant in our area.

No2 Incinerator would like to give a variety of local residents views on the subject.

WOULD YOU PLEASE TAKE A COUPLE OF MINUTES TO EXPRESS BELOW YOUR REASONS FOR OPPOSING THIS PROJECT.

If you prefer not to blog please send your comments to our email address no2incinerator@gmail.com and we will ensure we incorporate as many as we can into the finished piece.

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

2012-02-01T17:11:00.000+00:00

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.

Who's getting rich on your money? A BBC Panorama special!

2011-12-02T16:48:00.000+00:00

It was on last Monday, and it was good. Schools without light switches, that had to be illuminated day and night, hospitals having to pay their PFI costs first and provide care for their patients later, projects deemed unsuitable for use but paid anyway, by the taxpayer of course.

Please forgive the NO2incinerator for such blatant advertising! It couldn't be helped: this is essential viewing.

PFI has had its share of critics, and its load of bad press. Even the government, it seems, it's having second thoughts.

It makes us wonder, how is it that our Leeds City Council has seen or heard none of it.

Missing in Action!

2011-11-22T16:41:00.001+00:00

At the recent vote by Leeds City Council to confirm the building of a PFI funded municipal incinerator on the site of the old Wholesale Market at Cross Green the Labour Councillors for Burmantofts & Richmond Hill and Temple Newsam went missing in action! The 4 councillors representing the 2 most affected wards left the council chamber in advance of the vote and did not return until after the vote had been taken, this cynical action was totally unacceptable and a clear dereliction of their duty to their constituents. They may not have been able to alter the result of the debate but they should have had the courage of their convictions and their their manifestos.

These councillors had campaigned against the incinerator vociferously whilst in opposition and to a large extent had been elected because of their clearly expressed opposition to the project in this area and in failing to reflect the express wishes of their constituents have failed in their duty to their own electorate in a way that would, in any other walk of life, be a resigning matter but resigning on principle is no longer a concept understood by politicians of any party it seems.

NO₂Incinerator has worked all along with anyone who shared our opposition to the building of this incinerator in Leeds. Together with No Incinerator Leeds, Friends of the Earth, UKWIN and Palestine Solidarity Campaign we have provided very good soundly based opposition to this project on the grounds of cost, location, technology and the dubious record, both here and abroad, of the final bidder and we have worked with both Lib Dems and Labour who have both at times expressed their opposition to this project.

It appears that the main bones of this project were decided in 2006 by the then Lib Dem/Conservative administration and that the Labour Administration is unwilling or unable to alter the course of this project despite the radically different circumstances now.

This situation seems to leave the residents of this ward with only one option left; the voters of Burmantofts & Richmond Hill need to elect a candidate who is willing to stand on an Independent ticket and actually reflect the wishes of their electorate. Party politics is clearly not working for the vast majority of the people of this area who are constantly ignored, and sidelined by all parties, witness the almost total annihilation of the infrastructure of this area and the lack of any investment in the quality of life or future of the residents.

The time has come to serve notice on ALL the politicians in this city that we, the electorate, want proper representation which puts our needs and wishes ahead of national policy or local party in-fighting and we think now is indisputably the time for a genuine LOCAL, INDEPENDENT candidate to be put forward to stand for the people who elect them and not themselves or their ‘party’ whatever party they represent, that is genuine localism!

IT IS TIME FOR WE, THE ELECTORATE, TO STAND UP FOR OURSELVES; TO STAND TOGETHER AND TO SAY LOUDLY AND CLEARLY "THIS IS OUR COMMUNITY AND WE WANT ACCOUNTABLE REPRESENTATION THAT PUTS US FIRST"

The Incinerator is on the agenda of the Richmond Hill Forum on the 5 December 2011

2011-11-07T11:06:00.000+00:00

Artist's rendering of proposed incinerator

Now that the successful bidder for the for the contract has been announced and confirmed by the Executive Board (all three of our councillors attended) and the site they propose to use is known (The old wholesale Market site at Cross Green) we are not sure why they are coming to the meeting. It is more than plain that they have not listened or taken on board any of the vociferous objections we, the residents attending the Richmond Hill Forum, have been putting forward since 2006 when this scheme was first proposed but perhaps they are using this as yet another 'Consultation' propaganda exercise? If you look at the rather benign soft focus artist's rendering of what the proposed plant will look like you can hardly see the two 213 foot high chimneys in the background in fact we had to look quite carefully to see them at all, this however will not be a problem for those living near by as they will have no trouble at all seeing the chimneys or hearing the noise of the plant which operates 24/7 or from the traffic taking the waste to the site or removing the by-products.

However if you wish to make you position on the incinerator known come along to the meeting and have your say. There will be those who object to the whole idea of incineration as an outdated and unsustainable technology; those who object to its location so close to their homes who will be condemned as NIMBY's by those in leafy suburbs who want an incinerator but don't want it anywhere near them; those who object to the successful bidder Veolia on both the grounds of their health and safety record in this country and/or their behaviour in Palestine and finally those who object to the project being financed by a PFI contract which sees us buying this facility on the' never, never' given the rapidly falling waste stream which will be available to fuel this plant.

Comments from Council Khan on a proposed incinerator in the heart of his ward

2011-10-24T20:13:00.000+01:00

NO2incinerator have received an email from Councillor Asghar Khan, the newest councillor for our area, stating his position on the building an incinerator at the old wholesale market at Cross Green:

"The Council has decided to build an incinerator and decided upon a preferred supplier. The preferred supplier wishes to build the incinerator on the old Market site identified by the Liberals/Tories when they ran Leeds. Your then Liberal Councillor and Leader of the Council, Cllr Brett agreed that site in 2007. As your local Labour Councillors we will argue vigorously against the proposed site being used and lobby Council officials to ask them to identify an alternative site. We will not support the building of an incinerator on the Market site.

Thank you"

Cllr Asghar Khan

Labour Councillor for

Burmantofts & Richmond Hill ward

Tel: 0776 123 0027

Well that's hardly a definitive statement on the efficacy of incineration in the 21st century nor a denial that he does not want ANY incinerator in our area! What do our other two councillors say on this matter?

No one with an genuine interest in the future of this area, or for that matter any of the areas downwind of the 2 existing and 2 proposed incinerators thinks this is a good idea.

Friends of the Earth, NIL, UKWIN and other bodies have brought forward large amounts of evidence that indicate incineration as a technology is NOT the win, win option that its proponents claim it is.

Others, like Dr. Stuart Hodkinson of Leeds University, whose is an expert on PFI finance have pointed out the glaring disadvantages of this method of paying for such a long term project for the Council Tax payers of Leeds.

All of this is to no avail, this Labour council is no more willing to listen to the opinions of local residents than the last Lib/Con administration was.

Previous 'consultations' with some of the residents of the affected areas repeatedly returned a resounding NO to another incinerator in this area but since this was not the answer required it was totally ignored. Minutes of the Richmond Hill Forums from 2006 onwards repeatedly state the strident opposition of local residents to the building of this plant anywhere in East Leeds but again this point of view went totally unheeded.

A new 'consultation' will now be started by Veolia, why - they have decided the place, the size, the method, the hours of operation of the proposed plant - exactly what is left to 'consult' about, will they not build it if we say we don't want it, of course not? This 'consultation' will be exactly the same as previous ones carried out by Leeds City Council consisting largely of asking as few people as possible loaded questions on hotly contested statements and totally ignoring any answers which do not give the 'correct' answer!

It is certainly true that this proposed plant is the very worst possible option the council could have chosen for the areas of East Leeds which will be most affected, either directly or indirectly, by this plant and no matter how Veolia attempt to disguised it an incinerator is still an incinerator whatever they call it and it is still proposed to put it in the very heart of the most deprived areas of East Leeds unless we stand together to oppose this new blight on our communities.

Shocking..

2011-10-20T16:19:00.000+01:00

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!

Lessons from PFI and other projects

2011-09-23T11:27:00.000+01:00

PFI is on the news again, as hospitals all over the land are finding it hard to meet huge repayments every year, repayments of billions of pounds a year for some. As a result the hospitals will have to cut down on essentials and one way or the other, as the New Statesman prophetically said a couple of years ago, the taxpayer will once again foot the bill.

And it isn’t just hospitals: it’s schools, IT systems, housing or sewage and they all have two things in common. One, that the costs spiral out of control, from hundreds of thousands to billions of pounds, and two, that when things go wrong ( which they often do) it is very difficult to put them right!

And yet, our own City Council is planning to build a huge new incinerator using exactly that method of finance, a method that has proven to be costly and dangerous!!

When will they learn?

During the last forum meeting in Richmond Hill, once again, conveniently, there was no one available to talk finances.

We urge our councillors to reconsider, to calmly but diligently take a good look at the evidence and the experience of PFI schemes elsewhere in the country.

To quote Nick Cohen, “If you owe the bank £100, you're a debtor. If you owe £100m, you're a partner. The private finance initiative and public- private partnerships create de facto private monopolies. In utopian free-market theory, the customer can always shop elsewhere. With the PFI, the supplier has the customer by the throat”.

Let us learn the lessons from PFI projects, before it's too late!!

AT LAST! The date and venue for the Richmond Hill Forum.

2011-09-13T10:54:00.002+01:00

The time and venue for the next Richmond Hill Forum have been confirmed only ONE WEEK from the date of the meeting.

Richmond Hill Forum Agenda Papers

This is an important meeting and despite the lack of notice we would urge as many as possible of you to get to this meeting if you possibly can.

Waste Management is supposedly coming to this meeting as as we are nearly at the deadline for announcing the lucky winner of the PFI Incinerator contract lottery.

We need to be there and show the strength of our feelings on this matter. The time has come to stand up and be counted, not only for our area and our children's futures but for the future of the whole city.

Come along to the meeting, tell your friends and neighbours about it. There are many important things to do with this area on the Agenda and this is the ONLY forum in the whole city were ordinary residents can come along and have their say.

Richmond Hill Community Forum

2011-08-26T12:25:00.000+01:00

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

Waste Management and the PACT meeting

2011-07-12T15:46:00.000+01:00

Last night in a truly bizarre twist Waste Management, in the the form of Andrew Lingham turned up at the neighbourhood policing meeting held at the Richmond Hill Community Centre completely out of the blue. The subject of the proposed incinerator then took up almost the entire first hour of the two hour meeting though it had absolutely nothing to do with local policing.

We get the impression that Andrew thinks there is personal animosity between protest groups like ours and himself so let us assure him here and now that this is in no way true. NO2Incinerator knows quite well that Andrew is only doing the job he is employed to do the best way he can and we, at least, respect the fact that he is willing to come to meetings and fight his corner unlike others in his department.

I suspect that we are never going to agree on the incinerator but Andrew did tell us that the final decision on the winning bid will be announced around November and that the planning application will go in early next year.

He also confirmed that the decision to build an incinerator and to build it here was taken some years ago and that none of the "consultations" had any effect on that process. There will be further "consultations" when the winning bidder is announced but on what are we to be consulted?

It will not be the site - that has been decided;
it will not be the winning bidder - that will have been decided too;
it will not be the process to be used -that will have been decided

so what is left to talk about, the colour of the railings? These consultations are a dialogue with the deaf, they do not talk with us, they talk at us.

Insp J Hawkes

Several concerns were raised regarding this project amongst them traffic pollution from lorry movements in and out of the chosen site, Insp Jackie Hawkes said it would be no worse than the old car boot generated once a week, the audience were less than convinced by that argument. We also raised the matter of the falling waste stream, pointing out that Leeds had managed a 40% recycling rate for two months running even with little publicity and no city wide food collections yet started however this was dismissed by Andrew who seemed to imply that the figures were misleading. He did agree that in the future there was likely to be less waste to process but maintained that there would be enough to keep an incinerator going without importing waste though he did mention that this incinerator would be processing some commercial waste which we had not previously been told. We vigorously challenged this assertion and pointed out that in just 10 years Sheffield have gone from not importing waste for their incinerator to wanting to import 50,000 tonnes of waste to keep its going because of a diminishing waste stream despite the assurances they gave at the time. There is no way that over the 25 year lifetime of this contract Waste Management could guarantee that they would not have to do the same, they simply do not have a crystal ball.

Concerns about the inclusion of Veolia in the bidding process, given their involvement in human rights violations as cited by the United Nations, was raised but Andrew was understandably not able to say much about that, neither could he address the issue of the PFI funding for this project despite the very well documented problems with multiple PFI projects around the country, it is simply not his area of expertise.

All in all it was a very strange meeting, we are sure that had it been widely known in advance that this matter was to be discussed last night many more interested people would have been there, certainly more people came to the last Richmond Hill Forum especially to discuss this very matter when Waste Management did not turn up (due apparently to some confusion) and we hope that Waste Management will turn up to the next Richmond Hill Forum meeting on Monday 5 September 2011 at St Phillip's Church Hall Osmondthorpe Lane, Leeds when we will again try to put our points of view across - because the people in this area matter, their concerns and worries are just as valid as those in more affluent areas and we will not be brushed aside easily. We will fight tooth and nail for the future of our community and our children which we believe the incinerator will put in serious jeopardy.

The Richmond Hill Forum is discussing the Incinerator again

2011-06-09T21:25:00.000+01:00

The Richmond Hill Forum, 6pm 13 June 2011 at the Richmond Hill Community Centre, Long Close Lane, Leeds, will again be discussing the progress that has been made on the Waste Treatment Plant (Incinerator to you and me).

We are now coming closer and closer to the final bids for this plant being submitted and quite soon after that it is proposed to award the PFI contract to the winning bidder.

Until we know who the winning company is we will not know where this plant might eventually be built. If Aire Valley Environmental win the contract the plant they want to build is proposed for the old filter beds at the Knowsthorpe Sewage Works, if Veolia were to win the contract they would want to put the plant on the site of the Old Wholesale Market at Cross Green right on our doorsteps.

Come along to the meeting, listen to what everyone has to say about the plans and the progress that has been made to date. Take this chance to make your own views known to the Waste Management Team and the local Councillors, ask questions, find out where we are with this project now, what total cost is expected to be, indeed what it has cost already and most importantly what we really need for the future.

NO2Incinerator making their case at the Richmond Hill Family Fun Day

2011-06-01T20:45:00.000+01:00

NO2Incinerator at the Richmond Hill Family Fun Day 1 June 2011

The NO2Incinerator campaign took a stall at the Richmond Hill Family Fun Day at All Saints School field on Wednesday afternoon.

We gave out publicity materials on our campaign and collected 'footprints' for our STAMP IT OUT art project.

It was a great chance to talk to people in the area about the implications of the proposed incinerators in East Leeds and their possible effect on our area and to put across our point of view and also explain about the problems there have been with other similar projects around the country.

A great time was had be all and congratulations must be passed on to External Services who put on a truly entertaining event and the weather was, for once, on our side everyone seemed to have an absolutely fabulous time. The exotic creatures were a very big hit with everyone as you can see from the pictures in the slideshow.

NO2Incinerator will be at this community event

2011-05-30T19:54:00.000+01:00

The NO2Incinerator campaign will be at this community event to spread the word on the REDUCE, RE-USED and RECYCLE and to join in the fun.

We will be collecting footprints for our STAMP IT OUT art installation campaign, handing out balloons and publicity material and lollipops and hoping to interest both children and their in this important matter for all our futures.

Come along and enjoy the fun events, the result of some excellent work from the Extended Services team.

We are expecting a great time to be had by all.

Veolia seeks to combat Sheffield EfW shortfall

2011-05-20T14:55:00.002+01:00

Incinerator Sheffield

One of the 2 remaining companies trying to win Leeds City Council’s contract to build an incinerator is Veolia. Veolia runs an EfW plant in Sheffield which has been operational since 2007. The company is now seeking to vary its planning permission for this plant to allow it to source 50,000 tonnes of residual waste from surrounding councils to make up the shortfall at the 250,000 tonnes a year plant following concerns about future under-capacity. The contract was signed in 2001 and already changes in people’s behaviour, increased recycling and an economic downturn is having a detrimental effect on the operation of the plant.

We have said all along that the proposed 160,000 tonnes Leeds incinerator, to be built under a PFI contract lasting as least 25 years, would be subject to the same commercial pressures and we have stated again and again our firm belief that if it became necessary the planning permissions under which such a plant should operate would be varied in order to keep the facility viable. When this concern was raised at the Richmond Hill Forum it was vigorously denied by the then council leader, Cllr Richard Brett (Lib Dem – Richmond Hill), but he did allow that there was provision for a 1% of waste to come from outside the area to cover areas which whilst not in the municipal area of Leeds which still had waste collection controlled by Leeds City Council. We however were not then, and are not now, convinced by these assurances since if this hugely expensive contract were to be signed the council would have no choice but to go along with any changes which the operator wanted or face having the plant closed or running at a substantial loss.

Our suspicions on this matter seemed to be confirmed when we realised that the Jacobs Report, which identified the four sites finally put forward for this project scored all the sites examined for access by road, rail and canal which pretty well ensured that the lower Aire Valley would be home to whichever site was finally selected. Why would bin wagons need either rail or canal access?

We have repeatedly pointed out the fast changing type and amount of waste across our city. We have stated plainly that inevitable future changes in the amount of waste available for incineration will affect the viability of any such plant thereby making it inevitable that waste would have to be imported to fill the shortfall if a combination of regulation, education and recycling succeed in lowering residual waste across the city as seems likely.

The Sheffield project has seen a huge change in its waste stream in just 10 years resulting in it needing to import waste from surrounding areas, the contract for the Leeds Municipal incinerator is planned for at least 25 years so it seems likely to us that whatever the assurances now it is likely that we too will end up shipping in waste from other areas to keep this municipal millstone from crushing us.

The Leeds City Councillors must stop, think and re-evaluate this project.

• Yes we have to deal with municipal waste.

• No we cannot keep sending so much to landfill.

• This technology, financed in this way, is not the answer.

Incineration does not make waste magically disappear it simply reduces the amount of waste to roughly one third but an amount of the ash produced by this process is extremely toxic and requires specialist disposal.

The costs to Leeds Council Tax payers involved in buying this seemingly quick solution to a very difficult and constantly evolving problem by buying an incinerator on the "never never" will burden our children and grandchildren and won’t solve the problem.

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

2011-05-09T09:30:00.000+01:00

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.

The Candidates, the Incinerator and the local elections

2011-04-18T16:12:00.000+01:00

Asghar Khan Labour Candidate

Well at last we have the Labour Party candidate’s position on the building of an incinerator in East Leeds which can best be summed up as not at Cross Green it is too near housing and will annoy too many voters but not ruling out the Knostrop site and anyway we would not be in this mess if the Lib Dems hadn’t started this project in the first place.

David Hollingsworth Lib Dem Candidat

In this respect at least it seems that they are in a very similar position to the Lib Dems, as they too do not want an incinerator on Cross Green for, we imagine, the very same reasons but they also would be prepared to put up with one at Knostrop, whilst pointing out that the other two incinerators in our area already are also at Knostrop and that they where built by the then Labour administration 20 years ago.

As you know this is not the position of the NO2Incinerator campaign. We oppose the building of an incinerator full stop! We are convinced that this plant would prove to be grotesquely expensive particularly using a PFI formula to pay for it; that its inflexibility would make it unable to adapt to changing conditions and lifestyles and that its very presence would stop attempts to reduce, reuse and recycle household waste. Local enterprises which would provide many more local jobs as well as helping the environment and offering a more sustainable long term solution.

An incinerator will provide few, if any local jobs, even in the construction phase, as there is no mechanism to allocate jobs to local firms since such a huge project will go out to tender and large multi national construction companies will bid for the work. When completed there will be only a handful of low skilled jobs on offer and a similar amount of highly skilled specialist jobs which local people will not have the necessary skills to apply for.

For us this is NOT a party political issue it is about the right technology to solve this difficult and ongoing problem; quality of life for residents of East Leeds; the effects of this project on the future regeneration potential of our area and the cost and sustainability of the project for Council Tax payers across Leeds as a whole.

It seems from a careful reading of the election leaflets we have received so far that neither of the two most likely winners of the local election in our area is willing to say that they are against the building of another incinerator in our area. They both seem to us to be resigned to having an incinerator at Knostrop and each is busy trying to sell us the idea that it is all the other party’s fault.

We however don’t believe that it is inevitable; we think that any fair review of the Waste Stream Plan will show that the situation has changed markedly over the last 6 years since the project was first conceived, industry, government and educational initiatives have each brought about steady changes in actions and attitudes from ordinary people and these will go on changing rapidly for the foreseeable future. Committing ourselves to an inflexible 25 year plan in an ever shifting waste disposal climate is reckless, bull-headed and very likely to be an expensive mistake.

We have not so far received anything from either the Convervative candidate nor the Green Party candidate but when we do we will let you know where they stand on this issue.