Haringey Green party is to hold a public meeting on the contentious issue of the Pinkham Way MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment plant). The plan is to give concerned members of the public a chance to air their views, as well as hear from various speakers about the problems with the current plans and the various alternatives.
Darren Johnson, Green Party London Assembly Member, who recently met with residents and activists at the proposed site, will be amongst the speakers. Quentin Given, co-ordinator of the local Friends of the Earth group will also speak on the issue. The Pinkham Way Alliance will be represented by its founder, Colin Parish. The meeting is expected to attract concerned residents from Haringey, Barnet and Enfield.
The plant aims to cater for refuge from at least seven north London boroughs although NLWA may be scaling this back, to just three boroughs to begin with. Although fifty years ago the site housed a sewage works, it is now a grade 1 conservation site now with rare plants and bats in residence. This piece of wild land is a buffer for residents from the pollution spewed out by heavy traffic on the North Circular and in effect the lungs of the area. This plant will not only take away this buffer, but will also add to traffic emissions and some incineration and Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) methods will make matters even worse.
Darren Johnson commented, “While it is vital that we have new facilities in London to deal with waste, I do not believe that huge facilities of this size or type are the way forward or appropriate in congested urban areas. The North London Waste Authority should be putting far more emphasis on encouraging collection of doorstep recycling and food waste, rather than concentrating on large new plant for unsorted black bin waste such as this.”
Sarah Cope of Haringey Green Party added, “Ideally, each borough should have their own small waste management centres, to cut transportation distances and so also traffic emissions. It will take a huge cultural transformation in the way we package items to have a truly sustainable waste policy.”
The meeting will take place on Thursday
21st July, 7.30pm at Hollickwood School, Sydney Road, N10. All are
welcome.