The Croydon Green Party has obtained a damning document [1] which confirms their worst fears and exposes the intention of the South London Waste Partnership. The key to the document are the numbers and codes it contains:
– First, it identifies the estimated cost: 919 000 000.00 GBP, almost £1billion (see page 6 of document, attached).
– Second, the document suggests that total residual waste will reduce from 222,000 tonnes in 2014 to 200,000 tonnes in 2023 (page 5). This means recycling targets will barely improve whilst the ‘waste management site’ is in operation. The local Green Party have been explaining to local residents that a steady flow of waste would be required to make the privately run plant profitable. This will no doubt include recyclable waste.
– Third, and most importantly, the document contains a series of codes known in EU-speak as the Common Procurement Vocabulary (page 5).
Spokesperson for the Croydon Green Party Shasha Khan said: "All along the Croydon Green Party has been maintaining that the incinerator will suddenly appear on the horizon, most plausibly, in the Beddington sewage works area. The vast majority of people in the borough are unaware that a consultation has even started."
"Now we have obtained the procurement contract. This document contains a series of codes which can only be interpreted through the ‘Common Procurement Vocabulary’ – a sort pan European glossary. Thankfully we’ve identified what the numbers on the procurement contract actually mean.
Here are some examples of what Croydon Council is asking bids for:[2]
9051330 = Incineration
9051390 = Sludge disposal
90520000 = Radioactive, toxic, medical and hazardous waste services
90524200 = Clinical waste disposal
45252300 = Refuse incinerator construction
Shasha Khan continued:
"Quite how we have moved from an innocent consultation leaflet entitled ‘Moving away from landfill’, with fields of daisies and woodland on the front cover, to document that sees Croydon Council asking for bids for: incineration, sludge disposal, radioactive, toxic, medical and hazardous waste services, clinical waste disposal and refuse incinerator construction is beyond me. I don’t recall this being agreed."
"Not only that, the billion pound procurement contract suggests that hazardous waste from other areas will be transported in via trucks for us to dispose."
"I must take this opportunity to reiterate the solution to our growing waste crisis is a zero waste strategy of ‘reducing and reusing coupled with recycling and composting. At the cost of a billion pounds, surely this money could be better spent on an extensive education programme, comprehensive kerbside recycling facility and the building of Resource Recovery Plant."
"But it’s the health effects that most concern me. Studies show cancer rates, birth defects, lung and kidney disease all go up. [3]"
Recently Croydon Council accused the Croydon Green Party of "going around frightening people about incinerators" – in other words scaremongering. Conservative Cllr Phil Thomas also said that "the South London Waste Partnership will not have any of the things that we call incinerators" [4]
Commenting on the accusations, Shasha Khan said:
"I think it is fair to ask the Tory council for apology because this procurement contract shows that Croydon is calling for bids on incineration and refuse incinerator construction."
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Notes for Editors:
– Shasha Khan is available for interview on 020 8239 7066 or 07941 369 780; he is the PPC for Croydon North at the next general election; you can read a short biography of him at:
[1] http://www.croydon.gov.uk/contents/departments/business/pdf/Ltwaste
[2] The numbers are listed in the Common Procurement Vocabulary:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:074:0001:0375:EN:PDF
[3] http://www.ecomed.org.uk/content/IncineratorReport_v3.pdf
[4] http://noincineratorforcroydon.blogspot.com/2009/05/croydon-advertiser-publicises-issue.html