Council Devastated By Government Decision To Approve Incinerator
Bexley Council is "devastated" by the decision of the Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks, to approve an application for a waste-to-energy incinerator at Norman Road, Belvedere after so much anger about the proposal from local people.
The Minister announced this morning (15 June) that the application from Riverside Resource Recovery Limited has been approved, despite a long fight by the Council and local residents.
"I am angry with this outrageous decision. It is devastating and bitterly disappointing for the many people who have campaigned with us against the scheme since the original public inquiry in 1992. The Government has let us all down. It is a typical Government fiasco," says
Cllr Ian Clement, the Leader of Bexley Council.
Cllr Clement says the Council will continue to work to safeguard the interests of the people of Bexley: "We will be looking at the Minister's decision very carefully to ensure it meets all legal and policy requirements. We will be studying every move the developers make. If they don't comply with the Minister's requirements we will be down on them like a ton of bricks."
"The Company may have convinced the Minister, but it still has a massive task to win over the local community, and we will not be taken for granted", adds Cllr Clement.
The Council led opposition to the latest plans at a four-month long public inquiry held in Bexley in 2003, which was reconvened in the autumn of 2005, as well as at previous public inquiries. It believes that the scheme is the wrong proposal in the wrong place. The Council's concerns include the massive size of the incinerator, burning waste from a wide area of London and its potential to take away the challenge to recycle waste.
