Lynne Featherstone MP: "Email me..."

"The proposals for the Pinkham Way development are causing deep concern amongst local residents.

The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) want to build a giant waste treatment plant and vehicle depot at Pinkham Way. It is huge. It will process the waste from seven local boroughs. It will be one of the largest biological and mechanical treatment plants in Europe. 

The land is owned by Haringey, but the application is from NLWA and from Barnet, which will use part of the site to situate its fleet vehicles involved in waste, recycling, and street cleaning.

The site is in a local neighbourhood – and residents are angry on two fronts.

Firstly – that they haven’t been consulted. Whilst NLWA and Haringey claim people were notified, this clearly isn’t the case. In fact, I met with three very concerned mothers on Friday, none of whom had received any information whatsoever. They told me that, apart from one householder who had received a tiny leaflet with minimal information or explanation, none of the local people they know had received anything.

Secondly - local people are angry because of the emissions, volume of heavy trucks, environmental damage, noise, pollution and general degradation of the area.

Clearly, there had been a small distribution of information – but much of the growing local campaign has been on the back of word-of-mouth. The Bowes Park and Bounds Green Residents Association, the Pinkham Way Alliance, and Cllr Juliet Solomon (Liberal Democrat councillor for Alexandra Ward) have all been active in trying to get the message out, and holding local meetings.

Earlier this month, local councillor Juliet Solomon met with Council bosses, to highlight the complete lack of consultation with residents in Alexandra ward, and to raise a number of their concerns, in particular the impact of the additional lorry traffic on an already busy area.

Juliet and I are asking for all local residents’ views on the proposals, so we can ensure that these concerns are clearly taken into account when we meet with the top bosses at the NLWA, the week after next.

Last week, residents in Bounds Green met to discuss the issue and agreed to fight the plans, highlighting their concerns over the size of the development, the noise and traffic created by the 24-hour facility and the potential storage of methane gas.

When the time comes – i.e. when the planning application is made – everyone will need to put in their own objections and reasons for objecting – but for the purposes of my meeting with the NLWA, please don’t hesitate to email me at featherstonel, to let me know your views."