Wednesday 13 April 2011

'Pinkham Way Alliance' condemns Barnet Council’s decision to ratify north London Waste Plan


"More than 300 angry north London residents protested outside Barnet Town Hall last night (Tuesday 12 April) to show their disgust over plans to build one of Europe’s biggest waste disposal plants in the middle of a residential area, near one of the busiest junctions on the North Circular Road (Colney Hatch Lane).

The majority of councillors voted to approve the scheme, effectively dumping the problem on to neighbouring Haringey, where a planning application is expected to be made by the North London Waste Authority in May.

Despite the presence of approximately 150 members of the public inside the town hall at the start of the meeting at 7.00pm, and another 150-plus outside waiting to hear the council’s decision, the councillors refused to move the item up the agenda, and the decision was not made until after 10.00pm, by which time most people, adults and children, had gone home.

Local resident Colin Parish, who waited more than three hours to hear a cursory discussion about the decision, said:
"Council members were clearly intent on denying people the opportunity to see local democracy at work. It was shameful. They knew why we were there but they ignored councillor Rawlings’s plea for this to be dealt with earlier in the meeting. They were obviously ruffled to see the strength of feeling about this crazy scheme, and too embarrassed to let people see them make this decision.

This was one of the biggest decisions the council has had to make in years and there was no debate. Councillor Rawlings brought up the fact that the people living nearest to the site in Muswell Hill and Friern Barnet had even not been consulted, but people living ten miles away in Potters Bar had. He was ignored.

Now we face a situation where Barnet councillors, along with those in Islington, Enfield, Camden, Hackney and Waltham Forest, have smugly washed their hands of the problem, and dumped it on to their colleagues in neighbouring Haringey, who will have to make the planning decision. If the plans are approved, the people of Haringey, and those of us in Barnet and Enfield who live close to the site, will have the privilege of having at least 300,000 tonnes of waste each year trucked in and churned up in a 23-metre high building on our doorsteps.

In addition, Haringey will get the benefit of having all of Barnet’s waste trucks, road cleaning vehicles, and minibuses on its land, while Barnet council gets to pocket 12 million quid for the Pinkham Way site, and removes its own dump-truck and vehicle depot into a neighbouring borough. It will then be able to sell the current depot site in Mill Hill East to developers, for millions, [as part of a site] to build 2,500 dwellings and increase the council tax yield by more than £3 million a year.

There is a real democratic deficit here, and it stinks."

Chair of the Pinkham Way Alliance Bidesh Sharkar said:
"We will continue to fight this disastrous scheme. The councillors’ high-handed approach to their constituents will only encourage more local people to get involved with our campaign, and increase their determination to defeat this proposal.

London needs truly local solutions to the problem of waste management, not a massive factory close to schools and 10,000 homes, that will blight the lives of local people, increase already high levels of pollution, and bring the road system in north London to a grinding halt.’

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