GLA Lib Dems: "Concern about Pinkham Wood"

Link to carolinepidgeon.org

"As Leader of the Liberal Democrats at City Hall I share the concerns of local Liberal Democrat Councillors and Lynne Featherstone MP about the lack of consultation with local residents about the plans for the Pinkham Way site. A real and proper consultation must take place.

I am also concerned that Pinkham Way would cause increased congestion and thousands of additional vehicle movements per year in Haringey, and this would increase levels of air pollution in the area.

From a Londonwide perspective, my colleagues Dee Doocey AM and Mike Tuffrey AM and I believe that the Mayor must do much more to reduce the amount of waste produced in London, and to encourage increased recycling levels - which would mean there would be less need for these vast new waste sites."

Barnet Times: "Post Office to trial new branch in Bowes Road, New Southgate"

Link to Barnet Times / Enfield Independent (map)

"A NEW Post Office will open in New Southgate five years after the old branch closed down, it has been announced.

Heath News, in Bowes Road, will be the new base for the Post Office, serving residents of New Southgate and Arnos Grove."

Haringey Green Party: "Pinkham Way Statement"

Link to later Barnet Green Party statement.

Link to Haringey Green Party

"Haringey Green Party took the decision this week to formally oppose the North London Waste Authority’s plans for a large-scale waste management plant at Pinkham Way, just off the A406 North Circular road at Bounds Green.

"Ideally, each borough (or perhaps two neighbouring boroughs) should have their own waste management centres, to cut transportation distances and so traffic emissions. But at the end of the day, it will take a huge cultural transformation in the way we package consumer items and a return to reusing bottles, jars, bags etc., to have a truly sustainable waste policy."

Barnet Times: "Clock ticking on consultation"

Link to Barnet Times'

"The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) continues to bulldoze through its outrageous plan, with thousands of affected people of Barnet, Haringey and Enfield, and despite apparent promises of proper consultation to residents, 15 ward councillors, three MPs and the local representative on the Greater London Authority."

John Waller
Bounds Green & District Residents' Association

10.30am, 1 June: Darren Johnson AM visits Pinkham Wood

Time: 10.30am
Date: Wednesday 1st June
Meeting Location: Pinkham Way - Keetlewell Close N11 3PZ (south end of Close)

London Assembly Member, Darren Johnson AM, will be visiting Pinkham Way, the site of a proposed new waste plant and refuse lorry depot. He will hear from local residents about air pollution concerns. The plans by the North London Waste Authority would mean 560 vehicles, including 334 waste trucks and other heavy goods vehicles, entering and leaving the site daily.

Darren Johnson said:

"With over a thousand vehicle movements (including many HGVs) a day, the proposed waste plant at Pinkham Way would make air pollution in the area even worse and affect the health of local residents and local schoolchildren. The roads are already some of the most congested in London and residents are right to be concerned about more lorries belching out more fumes. Even without any further traffic increases, a local air quality monitoring station has already recorded 20 bad air days this year and could exceed the legal annual limit of 35 bad air days.

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 or close to residential 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."

---

27 May: From George Raszka, on behalf of Darren Johnson, Green Party Member of the London Assembly

"Following the concerns raised about the proposed development at Pinkham Way with Darren Johnson AM, Darren has submitted the question (copied below) to Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. We expect the answer to arrive early next week, which I will send as soon as it is available.

Pinkham Way - North London Waste Authority

Question by Darren Johnson to Boris Johnson

"A large number of concerned constituents have contacted me about the lack of public local consultation and information on the waste plant and depot proposed by North London Waste Authority and the London Borough of Barnet at Pinkham Way, Haringey. They are also concerned about the scale of the proposal, and the adverse impact of 560 refuse carts and other vehicles arriving and departing daily on already-congested and polluted local roads. Whilst I understand that the planning application has not yet been referred to you, what are you doing to make sure that residents' concerns are fully taken account of at this stage?"

Dont hesitate to contact me if you require any further information or help with this matter."

Regards,
George Raszka

Compatible with Barnet's dustcart depot location? Or with the incinerator-fuel waste plant?

Link to Department of Energy and Climate Change

"This Memorandum Of Understanding has been created in acknowledgement of the pivotal role councils have in tackling climate change: by reducing carbon emissions from their own estate and operations; encouraging and enabling their residents, businesses and visitors to reduce their carbon emissions; and by achieving national priorities such as the Green Deal and renewable energy deployment in a locally appropriate way."

POLICY

3.4  This MOU sets out the DECC and LG Group partnership approach to helping meet climate change mitigation and related objectives, notably including:

3.4.1 The 80% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target in the Climate Change Act 2008 by 2050 against a 1990 baseline.

3.4.2 The fuel poverty targets arising from the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000.

3.4.3 The target to supply 15% of the UK’s energy consumption from renewable energy by 2020 as set out in the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive.

3.5  The MOU sets out how DECC and the LG Group will work together to help and encourage all councils to take firm action – underpinned by locally ambitious targets and indicators - that enable councils to:

3.5.1 Reduce the carbon emissions from their own estate and operations;

3.5.2 Reduce carbon emissions from homes, businesses and transport infrastructure, creating more, appropriate renewable energy generation, using council influence and powers; and

3.5.3 Participate in national carbon reduction initiatives at the local level, particularly the roll out of the Green Deal, smart metering and renewable energy deployment.

Barnet Press: Friern Barnet Library

In his bad books: Kim Lee gathers signatures for the Friern Barnet cause
Link to Barnet Press

"Schoolchildren, parents and adult readers descended on Friern Barnet library on Saturday afternoon, to campaign against Barnet Council’s plan to close the library in Friern Barnet Road and North Finchley library, to create a 'landmark' arts and culture library at the artsdepot site at Tally Ho Corner.

"More than 650 people visited the 77-year-old library on Saturday, the equivalent to a week’s footfall in one day. In one hour, 350 people entered the library for a read-in."

Ham and High, Barnet Times, and Enfield Independent

 (Click to enlarge the images, and usually again to magnify)

'North London Waste Plan' cock-up: No-one dead; nothing to see; move along there; ...

---

North London Waste Plan – consultation dates have been revised

"I recently wrote to you about a consultation running on the proposed submission version of the North London Waste Plan. Due to circumstances beyond our control, one of the advertisements in the local press about the North London Waste Plan was not published at the correct time.

As a result, the six week period for representations now runs from 27 May to 8 July.

However, all representations that have been submitted since the original start date of 11 May will be accepted, along with all those received up to 8 July.

For your convenience, I include the information about the consultation contained in my previous letter/email to you, with amended dates, in its entirety, below.

---

Publication of the 
North London Waste Plan

Councils in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest have been developing the North London Waste Plan. When adopted, the Plan will form part of each council’s Local Development Framework.

I am writing to let you know that, following the consultation on the preferred options for the Plan in October 2009, the seven boroughs have published the proposed submission version of the Plan. The consultation period on the document runs from 27 May to 8 July 2011.

The boroughs have considered the all the comments from the previous consultation stages and have used them in preparing the latest version of the document. The North London Waste Plan identifies a range of suitable sites for the management of all north London’s waste up to 2027 and sets out policies and guidelines for determining planning applications for waste developments.

How to view the plan

The plan is available to view from 27th May at www.nlwp.net, and during opening hours in the councils’ planning offices and at any one of the councils’ libraries. At the same locations you will also be able to see related reports on previous consultation, habitats, equalities and sustainability and the technical evidence behind the plan.

How to comment on the plan

Your comments should be made in writing using the specific proposed submission representation form. We have produced a guidance note which explains how to make your comments using the form. You can download forms and notes from the website, or they are available from council planning offices or by contacting Archie Onslow (details below). Please note, at this stage your comments must relate to the ‘soundness’ and/or legal compliance of the documents.

You can send your responses in a number of ways:

• On the interactive form www.nlwp.net/have_your_say/response_form.php or
• by email to feedback@nlwp.net or
• in writing to Archie Onslow at North London Waste Plan, Camden Town Hall, Argyle Street, London WC1H 8EQ

All responses must be returned by 8 July 2011.

More information

For more information visit www.nlwp.net or contact Archie Onslow on feedback@nlwp.net or 020 7974 5916

What happens next?

When the consultation closes on 8 July, the boroughs will collate all the responses received and submit them, together with the submission documents, to an independent Planning Inspector. This submission is programmed for October, and will mark the beginning of the examination of the Plan. A public hearing is expected in early 2012. At the end of the examination, the Inspector writes a report for the boroughs.

The boroughs will keep you informed at these various stages about the progress of the Plan.

Yours sincerely,

Archie Onslow

Programme Manager"

Pinkham Way Alliance: "North London Waste Authority’s newsletter is ‘cynical attempt to hoodwink local residents’ "

"Earlier this month, the NLWA sent a newsletter to 18,000 homes in Enfield, Barnet and Haringey. This was ostensibly to correct any ‘misunderstanding’ about its intended plans for a 300,000-tonne-a-year waste treatment plant on the site of Pinkham Wood, on the Colney Hatch Lane/North Circular Road junction.

"Far from easing people’s fears, it has made them angry, and fearful for their future wellbeing, because of its lack of transparency and patronising tone.

"The NLWA bought the land at Pinkham Way in 2009, but it was only in February of this year, nearly two and a half years later, that local people first heard about their plans, which if carried out, will be a catastrophe for residents and businesses in the Friern Barnet/Muswell Hill area and beyond.

The Chair of the 'Pinkham Way Alliance' Bidesh Sarkar said:

"The NLWA has constantly said that we misunderstand what they are doing. The problem is we know all too well what they are up to, and we are not going to stand for it.

Their latest missive has infuriated people by showing a timeline of previous 'opportunities' when local people could have had their say, dating back to March 2008. Well, as far as we can tell, Pinkham Wood didn’t appear on anybody's list of potential sites until well after that date, so how could we have been consulted about it?

The first any of us knew about this dangerous plan was in February, when there was an exhibition at a local school, which was a complete bolt from the blue.

The Pinkham Way Alliance is mobilising local people to fight this scheme so that we can save our way of life for our children and their children."

"Among the misleading information in the NLWA’s newsletter listed by Mr Sarkar are:

• Continuing insistence on euphemistically calling the proposed chimney a 'stack'. It’s not a 'stack', it's a chimney that could be 150 or more feet tall (46 to 53m). That is the same size as a large electricity pylon. Why is the NLWA planning a chimney? Because of the smells and the gases NLWA knows it will emit. There are around 10,000 homes within a one kilometre radius of Pinkham Wood.
• Failure to answer the question about whether the proposed site, at 300,000 tonnes a year, will be one of the biggest in Europe. A recent Freedom of Information Act request by the Pinkham Way Alliance has forced the NLWA to concede that there are only two bigger sites in Europe – one in Leyland, Lancashire (marginally bigger at 305,000 tonnes), the other in Madrid (480,000 tonnes). Residents near the (Farington) Leyland site have been complaining for months about the stench coming from the site. (Two bigger sites have been granted planning permissions in the UK – but they are in the middle of a 25-hectare disused airfield in Rivenhall in Essex.)
• The NLWA's traffic chart looks nonsensical. Suggesting that the vehicular traffic coming into the site neatly coincides with ‘quiet times’ on the North Circular road looks just too convenient to believe. Who will be able to enforce this – certainly not the local residents! What is to stop more vehicles coming during rush hour – which lasts for about three hours at each end of the working day – or during the middle of the night?
• The NLWA told the Pinkham Way Alliance that vehicles from four boroughs would be using the site, but the newsletter only mentions Barnet, Enfield and Haringey – there is no mention of (west) Camden.
• The notion that the site is 'not accessed through residential roads' is farcical. Are these lorries going to fly into the site? Aren’t Colney Hatch Lane and Bounds Green Road residential roads? Or don’t people who live in houses and flats count as residents, in the NLWA’s book?
• The ‘illustrative landscape map’ provided gives no indication of the sheer bulk of the planned building. It will cover an area as big as two football pitches and be 75ft (23m) high. That’s a massive building, the height of a six or seven storey block of flats.
• A précis of the NLWA’s answer to its own question 'Will the site be operational day and night, every day of the week?' is YES IT WILL.
• The NLWA expects us to believe that there will be no noise or smells because 'all waste handling and treatment will be within the buildings'. The doors of these buildings will be opened at least 668 times a day, to let the lorries in and out. How will these magic doors prevent the odour and noise escaping?
• Apparently there will be 'a number of features that will help the site's ecological value' and 'many trees will be retained'. The site at Pinkham Way is a mature woodland. The newsletter makes it sound as though levelling the wood, filling it with concrete, and putting a large-scale waste treatment plant on top of it will improve the site’s ecological value.
• The NLWA are going to be offering a 25 to 30 year contract for this site. Who is to say what they might do at the site, once the contract is signed and the plant is up and running?
• The NLWA is keen to set out its green credentials, but the mechanical and biological treatment plant that they have planned will provide fuel for incineration for 30 years to come – not very green at all.
• 'Only a small quantity of methane will be stored on site.' How small? Big enough to blow up the building if there is an accident or fire? This site is on the North Circular Road and borders the East Coast mainline railway track. At any one time it will be a repository for hundreds of tonnes of combustible waste and petroleum-based fuel for vehicles. Mechanical and biological treatment plants have been known to catch fire or even explode – look at what’s happened in just the past seven months: See the internet for fires at waste plants in Thirsk, Yorkshire (05.05.2011), Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea (09.02.2011) and Burscough, Ormskirk (13.10.2010)."

BBC: "Britain's e-waste illegally leaking into West Africa"

Link to BBC web site

"In Britain each year, we throw away a million tonnes of electronic waste - enough to fill Wembley Stadium six times over. So what happens to our broken TVs and computers – our e-waste – once we have dumped it? Raphael Rowe reports from Ghana.

"The campaign group 'Environmental Investigation Agency', which has attempted to track e-waste from the UK to West Africa, said:

"There needs to be a lot more enforcement, but there also needs to be a shake-up of how we handle electronic waste in the UK and our waste needs to be much more closely monitored than it ever has been."

Click for BBC iPlayer

Cllr Juliet Solomon, Haringey Alexandra Ward, comments further

"This proposal for a large quasi-industrial complex and, worse, Barnet's lorry depot, sprung on us with no warning, is unacceptable. Yes, of course we have to deal with our rubbish – but there is more than one way to skin a cat!!

"I will defend the residents of my ward and surrounding ones with all the energy and skill which I can conjure up."

NLWA correspondence

From: S-PinkhamWay@haringey.gov.uk

19/05/2011

Dear Resident

You have previously provided us with your details in connection with the proposals for development of a waste facility and depot at the Pinkham Way (former Friern Barnet sewage treatment works) site. The Waste Authority has produced a newsletter to answer some of the questions that we have received following our exhibitions earlier in the year. The newsletter can be viewed at: http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/procurement/pinkham_way/pinkham_way_newsletter, and you may also have received a copy by post.

Kind Regards,

North London Waste Authority

---

From: Member of the Public

19/05/2011

Please be kind enough to explain why Haringey - as the independent local planning authority - is distributing a NLWA memo, that is, from a planning applicant.

Thank you for your assistance.

---

From: S-PinkhamWay@haringey.gov.uk

24/05/2011

Thank you for your email. In response to the point that you have raised:

The North London Waste Authority does not employ any staff directly. Instead it makes arrangements through a lead borough arrangement with its constituent borough councils, i.e. the London Borough of Camden, and until recently, the London Borough of Haringey.

Camden and Haringey, as lead boroughs for the NLWA, have employed staff to undertake NLWA work and equipped them with offices, IT and other infrastructure, but then charge the associated costs back to the NLWA. The costs of establishing NLWA as a completely stand-alone entity with its own dedicated support for finance, legal, property, personnel, IT, etc. employees has always been judged to be an inefficient use of council tax payers’ money, by contrast to the current arrangements, through which NLWA benefits from the economies of scale of a host borough.

Whilst the NLWA’s principal address is at Camden Town Hall (the Clerk to the NLWA is the Chief Executive of Camden, and Camden supplies financial, legal and committee services support to the NLWA), the main day-to-day business of the NLWA is conducted from offices in Haringey (as, until recently, the Haringey Director of Environment was also the “Technical Adviser” to the NLWA and chief officer responsible for the NLWA’s strategy and contracts management activities).

These arrangements are noted in each year’s Annual Report from the NLWA and are a matter of public record (most recently at http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/admin/uploads/20100630/2006-06-30-Report-Item12-%20NLWA%20Annual%20report.pdf – see paragraphs 1.7 and 1.8, and also in the NLWA 2009/10 Annual Statement of Accounts at http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/cms_downloads/Statement_of_accounts_0910.pdf).

As noted in both documents, the employment link with Haringey ceased from the end of March 2010; however, because staff employed on NLWA business are still based in offices leased from Haringey Council (separate from any Haringey Council employees), Haringey IT systems are still in use, under a Service Level Agreement between the two parties, by most people engaged on NLWA business.

Kind Regards,

North London Waste Authority

Cool 'Pinkham Panthers' web site. Now Even Cooler.

Pounce on web site

... Waiting for the NLWA to submit their outline planning application to Haringey Council ...

... This will be a joint application with Barnet Council for their lorry depot ...

Haringey Journal: Yet another picture of Boris

Link to Haringey Journal

Boris Johnson’s sporting stop at Muswell Hill autism school

"London Mayor Boris Johnson and paralympic athlete Ade Adepitan were in sporting form as they visited a Muswell Hill autism school.

"The mayor launched the London 2012 Equality and Diversity Forum's third annual report called 'Working Towards An Inclusive Games' during the visit."

Haringey Journal: "A stink brews as Muswell Hill rubbish depot boss rules out public meeting"

Link to Haringey Journal        

"A waste boss has refused to attend a public meeting to answer questions on controversial plans to build a huge rubbish depot.

"Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone has now written to Haringey Labour Councillors Nilgun Canver and George Meehan, who sit on the publicly funded NLWA, to ask them to intervene and persuade the boss to reconsider.

"The NLWA announced plans to build a 23-metre-high rubbish plant processing 300,000 tonnes of domestic waste a year in February - which have been met with opposition across three boroughs."

Alexandra News: "Mayor of London Awards Local Park"

Link to 'Alexandra News'

"Boris Johnson has handed the Friends of Albert Road Recreation Ground (FARRG) a Gold Award for Safety.

"Albert Road Recreation Ground was the only park in Haringey to win a gold award, and one of twelve in the whole of London."

Link to Friends of Albert Road Recreation Ground 

(FARRG) web site

	102, 184, 299
	Bounds Green, Wood Green
	Alexandra Palace

Thursday 26 May: Planning Seminar

INVITATION:

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

A Friends of the Earth / Town and Country Planning Association seminar

Thursday 26 May, 12-6pm

at TCPA, Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AS

This is a seminar on the Government's new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) - at this meeting we shall be sharing ideas with a range of coalition colleagues and putting together our initial response to the draft NPPF.

The NPPF is the key document setting overall planning policy. Its contents will be a test of whether the Government is championing sustainable development (SD) in its planning reforms and plans for economic recovery, or if SD and environmental issues are to play second-fiddle to business-as-usual economic growth.

Contact Charlotte Chan (020 7566 1650 charlotte.chan@foe.co.uk) if you wish to attend.

This roundtable is to formulate a second response to the Government’s proposals to reform national planning policy for town and country planning in England.

This national planning policy does not include the National Policy Statements, but will mean the reform of the existing planning policy statements on sustainable development, renewable energy, retail and economy. We know that the Government has a strong pro-growth agenda, and that they have already made announcements to the effect that the planning system is to be used to deliver economic development.

Outcome: The aim of the roundtable is to share views, discuss policies, and gather evidence for the submission of a second response, and to inform the Rights & Justice team’s continuing work on the NPPF, which we hope to develop into a counter-publication to the Government’s publication of the draft NPPF in early July 2011.

Attendees: Local and Regional Campaigners; Climate, Energy, Transport, Food and Resource Use Campaigners, Local Groups, Community Groups.

Barnet Times: "Around 400 residents turn out for Save Friern Barnet Library event"

Link to Barnet Times

"AROUND 400 people gathered outside a threatened library on Saturday to show their opposition to council plans.

"Resident Tamar Andrusier said:

"Our children love Friern Barnet Library. They started coming to story-time with the librarian when they were two- years-old, arriving in their double buggy."

"Martin Russo, who is helping to co-ordinate the campaign, said Saturday’s event had been a 'great success', and raised awareness of the situation among residents."

vickim57: "Save Friern Barnet Library!"

Link to 'vickim57' web site

"The library cuts are still pretty bad. £1.4 million worth of bad. And if you use Friern Barnet library or Hampstead Garden Suburb library, both due to close, they are very bad indeed! The users of these libraries are not going to take the cuts lying down. 

"A demonstration outside Friern Barnet library on Saturday 21 May drew more than 200 people. Local schoolchildren who use the library were much in evidence with posters they had made. Local residents are campaigning to have the green space next to the library recognised as a village green."

Click for Library campaign web site

Barnet Times: "New book tells the story of London's lost rivers"

Abandoned canals at the Royal Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey
Link to book review

"The Moselle takes its name from the mossy well and hill that spawned Muswell Hill – it has several sources in the Highgate area, which join up before it flows down to Wood Green, Tottenham, and eventually out into the River Lea."

Evening Standard: "Another own goal for Boris?"

Link to Evening Standard

"Boris Johnson found it tough to keep his eye on the ball when trying to save penalties from children in Highgate [in the Muswell Hill conservation area] today."

BBC: "Barnet has 'highest number of road deaths' "

Link to BBC web site

The highest number of road deaths in London last year happened in Barnet, Transport for London figures show. In 2010, nine people died and 1,520 injured on the borough's road network, a rise of 8% on the previous year.

A Barnet Council spokesman said:

"Barnet has several major TfL arterial roads running through the borough, which have a significant impact on accident figures. More than a quarter of all the borough's serious or fatal casualties happened on these roads."

Harrow Times: "Recycling rates hit 50 per cent"

Link to web site

"RECYCLING rates in Harrow have hit 50 per cent, as plans to [increase] the service to flats are approved.

"A grant of almost £400,000 will pay for blue bins for 8,000 flats previously left out, and Harrow Council hopes all homes will be included by the end of March next year."

---

[The North London Waste Authority is only planning for 50% recycling by 2020. Yet Scotland expects 70% by 2025, on the way to "Zero Waste" by 2050. Continental cities achieve high percentages, even with large flat numbers, like in north London. 

Harrow is using a financial contribution for flats from the Mayor of London. Note that Barnet and Haringey Councils have failed to obtain any Boris-money for this purpose. Enfield has done so, and no less than 26 out of 32 boroughs have been successful.]

OpinioN8: All publicity is good publicity

Link to 'OpinioN8' web site

[Memo:  "Must revisit, and ensure sellotape's structural and adhesive integrity is maintained."]

"Learn about all the most common Waste Technologies from this concise eBook"

Click above for details

"The waste management sector is transforming itself from an under-funded 'cinderella' industry into a highly technologically-sophisticated industry, by adoption of the waste treatment technologies in this ebook.

"Contents include:

• Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT)
• Unsorted / residual waste Materials Recovery Facility (Dirty MRF)
• Materials Recovery Facility (clean MRF)
• Energy from Waste
• Moving Grate Incineration
• Fluidised Bed Incineration
• Anaerobic Digestion
• Composting Windrow and In-vessel
• Pyrolysis & Gasification
• Co-Incineration
• Steam Reformation Processes / Autoclaving
• Mechanical Separation / Pulverisation
• Refuse Derived Fuel plant.

(We have no commercial connection with this publisher.)

'In the Night Garden': Igglepiggle and Barnet Council want 29,000 extra car journeys every day; Upsy Daisy backs burning domestic waste from the Pinkham Wood Waste Plant, ...

'The Pinky Ponk Show', or 'The Ninky Nonk Show' ?
 Link to ticket purchase for Brent Cross in September

(Barnet Council's website currently predicts 29,000 extra cars every day, under Brent Cross and West Hendon development plans. There are also plans for a 140-metre incinerator chimney.)

Petition: "Save the conservation site at Pinkham Way from redevelopment"

Link to petition

"We, the undersigned, call on the Government to save the conservation site at Pinkham Way from being redeveloped, a plot that's been designated a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) for its botanical diversity and uncommon plants, and is flanked by other SINCs including, but not limited to, Alexandra Palace and Coldfall Wood. 

"We ask that the NLWA's proposed planning application to Haringey Council to build a waste management facility in the heart of a residential area, with all the risks involved, be halted immediately."

Haringey Journal: "Muswell Hill residents lead green revolution"

Link to Haringey Journal

"A group of residents on the Upper Alexandra Road Estate, next to Muswell Hill Golf Course, have got their green fingers working overtime after taking on the gardening contract for their council estate.

"Resident Ken Bennett said:

"We just wanted to make the estate better than it was. Now we can’t keep people out!"

2.30-4pm, 18 May debate, Westminster Hall: "Government policy on waste reduction"

Meeting started on Wednesday 18 May at 2.29pm
ended at 5pm

Private Members’ Debate:
Government policy on waste reduction – Hywel Williams

Private Members’ Debate:
Profile and status of the manufacturing sector – Alison McGovern
Private Members’ Debate:
Contribution to costs of policing football matches by Premiership clubs – Mr Aidan Burley

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(Since this video auto-runs, click PAUSE to stop it, for now. We are trying to make the default as PAUSED - but you know politicians!)

Pinkham Way Alliance on "Barnet Vehicles" [plus our comment]

"Barnet Council want to re-locate their fleet of vehicles from Mill Hill [East], to Pinkham Wood in Haringey, [outside] the borough.

"The fleet consists of:

• 41 rubbish trucks
• 35 recycling trucks
• 18 street cleaning vans
• 8 mechanical sweepers
• 25 passenger transport vehicles (minibuses)."

---

We say:

QUOTE FROM BARNET WEBSITE (click on the image above):

"72% of your total household waste can be recycled from home in Barnet."

Across the boroughs, that would mean Pinkham Wood (a "black-bag" waste depot) would not be needed.

Why therefore sign "25-35 year contracts", with guaranteed waste quantities, and guaranteed calorific values (that is, including plastics and paper) for the incinerator-fuel produced at Pinkham Wood?

Planning, the Law and your Rights!

Talk Action and Friends of the Earth are doing a residential weekend in July (along with a Saturday ‘taster session’) on planning, the law and your rights. It is a weekend of workshops and networking to empower people to make a difference. Click below for details!

LB of Lambeth: "Earn rewards for recycling with Recyclebank"

Click for Lambeth web site

"Lambeth residents are the first in London to be able to participate in the Recyclebank scheme, which has been introduced by the council to boost recycling levels and reduce the amount the borough spends disposing of waste.

"Residents who sign up earn points every time they recycle. The points can then be used for a fantastic selection of rewards."

Lynne Featherstone MP: "NLWA boss refuses to attend public meeting on Pinkham Way"

"Local Liberal Democrats have demanded that Haringey Council intervenes, after the top boss at the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) this week refused to attend a public meeting on the controversial plans to build a waste processing plant at Pinkham Way.

"In April 2011, Lynne Featherstone MP asked David Beadle, the managing director of the NLWA to speak at a meeting to raise awareness about proposals to build the waste plant, and to listen to local concerns before the NLWA submitted the planning application to Haringey Council.

"Following the rebuff by NLWA, Lynne Featherstone MP has today written to the Labour representatives who sit on the publicly-funded NLWA board, Councillors Nilgun Canver and George Meehan, asking that they personally intervene, by asking the top boss to reconsider the invitation.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

"The consultation into plans to build a huge waste plant at Pinkham Way to date has been shambolic. I’m really disappointed that the waste authority has refused to address these concerns by attending a public meeting.

Being at the meeting and being prepared to listen to local residents, before submitting the plans, would have gone some way towards giving residents assurances that their concerns will be heard.

The NLWA is a public body, funded by local tax payers – they should feel duty-bound to attend a meeting, and engage with residents over these major plans. I have today therefore written to councillors Meehan and Canver, asking them encourage Mr Beadle to reconsider.

I share many residents’ fears about the plans to build this huge waste plant in a residential area, and right next to local schools. The area already suffers from bad traffic, and over 330 lorries entering and exiting the site each day will make a bad situation worse. Rest assured, I will stand alongside residents in fighting these plans."

Bowes and Bounds: "Closure of OneTwoEight Myddleton Road"

"We have not been successful in getting lottery money to keep 128 Myddleton Road going after June. It has been a great year at 128. There have been sessions for Mums and Babies, Older People, Health activities, Give and Takes, parties and social events and it has been a really good meeting place!

"The Bowes Park Community Association will focus on new ideas, and supporting the current initiatives which need more volunteers, such as the garden groups."

Pinkham Way Alliance: "Top 10 Traffic Blackspots"

Questions to the Mayor of London, 15 December 2010:

"Which are the ten most congested roads on the TLRN during 

            a) morning peak 

and 

            b) evening peak?"


In the morning peak hour, the A406 Bowes Road westbound is ranked at No. 9. This is the stretch of the North Circular where the roadworks are currently taking place.

In the evening peak hour, the A406 Pinkham Way eastbound is ranked at No. 1. This is the stretch where the North Circular merges from 3 lanes into 2, to squeeze under the railway bridge. And just as significant, ranked at No. 4 is the junction of the A406 with Colney Hatch Lane.

Bestway (subject to Compulsory Purchase Order at Brent Cross) tries to 'stir it'

To: FCC Skanska (Formento de Construcciones y Contratas SA and
Skanska Infrastructure Development UK Ltd) (consortium) [and two others on the first NLWA shortlist]

and
To: Covanta Energy Ltd. (UK) [and two others on the other NLWA shortlist]

North London Waste – (Treatment & Fuel Use Contract)

We understand that your consortium is one of the three remaining bidders that has been chosen to develop solutions to provide modern sustainable

waste facilities for long term waste / fuel services 

or

energy generation from the use of a solid recovered fuel (SRF) 

for the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) and we are aware that any bidder in your position will want to secure such a contract, by demonstrating how to deliver the required services, in a compliant and lawful manner, and for the lowest price.

To achieve the above, you will need to become the NLWA’s preferred bidder, and to demonstrate your credentials to achieve this milestone.

We hope that you don’t mind, but we have attached information and background that should guide your approach to a very important aspect of this process, namely, avoiding the inevitable and serious issue of trying to acquire the Bestway site. Everyone knows that this will be difficult and expensive at best, with delays to your delivery programme, and at worst, simply impossible to achieve.

At best, it will involve cost and serious delay, and I can assure you that at worst, this site will never be secured, as we will do everything possible to achieve the latter.

We trust you will consider this matter with the importance it deserves, and will no doubt concur that there are better, more practical, deliverable, and operationally preferable site options, within the NLWA area (than our site on the western boundary).

Bestway operate a highly successful cash and carry depot currently at Geron Way [Brent Cross] and this is one of the most profitable within the group, as part of what is nearly £2.3bn of turnover.

We have absolutely no reason to move from our current Geron Way site, and we continue to challenge the NLWA and the recently published NL Waste Plan which promotes our site as appropriate to replace the Hendon Rail Transfer Station. It is totally perverse that this site has been chosen and still pursued, contrary to the technically flawed selection being exposed some time ago, and put on public record.

We have a team of planning, waste, transport, environmental, and other technical experts, supported by our respective solicitors and QC’s to fully support our work.

Stretton’s Chartered Surveyors have been working with us on site finding and analysis of suitable waste facility sites in the NLWA area,, and we have found several more suitable and appropriate sites on which we are undertaking more detailed analysis, based on extensive information and context. To illustrate this, we enclose a copy of a schedule of all potential alternative sites for a waste facility.

We would urge you to study these sites. We stress that the extensive information we have behind this work illustrates that the Geron Way site is not viable or appropriate, in the context of the large number of suitable and appropriate sites we have identified. We will be happy to share this information with you in the context of any proposals you are preparing.

We have further work to do regarding this matter, and we will be bringing all this information to bear during the current NLWP consultation process, and will demonstrate that the site selection is clearly unsound. We will take this through to public examination before an Inspector.

Map 2: All Identified Potential Waste Sites

1. Solar Way, Enfield, EN3 7XY
2. Bilton Way, Ponders End, EN3 6EW
3. Oakleigh Road South, New Southgate, N11 1HJ
4. Great Cambridge Road, Waltham Cross, EN8 8DY
5. Regis Road, Kentish Town, NW5 3ED
6. Clarendon Road, Wood Green, N22 6XJ
7. Albert Road, East Barnet, EN4 9SH
8. Argall Avenue, Leyton, E10 7QP
9. Markfield Road, Tottenham, N15 4QA
10. White Hart Goods Yard, White Hart Lane, Tottenham, N17 8DP
11. Highgate Road, Gospel Oak, NW5 1TN
12. Bridge Road, Wood Green, N22 7SN
13. Cranbourne Road Industrial Estate, Cranborne Road, Potters Bar EN6 3JN*
14. Lea Interchange, 151 Ruckholt Road, E15 2EN
15. Kenninghall Road, Edmonton, N18 2PD
16. 37a Pemberton Terrace, N19 5RR. Bush Ind Est, Station Road, N19 5UN
17. Cranford Way Industrial Estate, Tottenham Lane, N8 9DG
18. London Gateway Services via Ellesmere Avenue, Mill Hill, NW7 3HB
19. Hannah Close, Wembley*
20. Picketts Lock Lane, Edmonton
21. G Park, Mollison Avenue, Enfield
22. JVC site Harp View Business Park, Priestley Way, Hendon*
23. View 406, Advent Way, Edmonton
24. Former Gas Holders, Leeside Road, Edmonton
25. Leeside Industrial Estate, Leeside Road, Edmonton
26. Edmonton Eco Park, Advent Way, Edmonton
27. Greenstar MRF, Lee Park Way, Edmonton
28. Rigg Approach, Leyton
29. Camden Plant, Lower Hall Lane, Advent Way, Edmonton
30. Martinbridge Industrial Estate, Lincoln Way, Enfield
31. Navigation Park, Morson Road, Enfield
32. Garrick Industrial Estate, Garrick Road, Colindale
33. Leeside Trading Estate, Garman Road, Edmonton
34. Mowlem Trading Estate, Leeside Road, Edmonton
35. Angel Works, Advent Way, Edmonton
36. Aerodrome Road, Colindale
37. Victory Park, Cricklewood
38. Kynoch Road, Edmonton
39. Nobel Road, Edmonton
40. Marsh Lane, Tottenham
41. Willesden Euroterminal, Old Oak Common, Willesden*
42. ex-Eurostar North Star depot, Scrubs Lane, North Kensington*

* Not in NLWA area

This evidence, including extensive further background, clearly indicates that it is neither in your or the public interest to pursue the Geron Way site, and it should be ruled out now, well in advance of any CPO consideration.

In summary, the tendering process puts the onus on you to deal with such delivery issues, not the NLWA, which is just backing up its now outdated Outline Business Case. We therefore strongly suggest that, when you are preparing your strategy for delivery, you seriously consider the above, and promptly withdraw our site from any further consideration.

Yours sincerely, BESTWAY

Barnet Press, and Enfield Advertiser (2)

 (Click to enlarge the images, and usually again to magnify)

David Burrowes, MP, Enfield Southgate: "Help build a campaign!"

Message from David Burrowes MP:

Are you free to help me in the crucial campaign against the Pinkham Way Waste Management Site, this Friday and Saturday?

If you have a spare hour on either day, please contact Adam on 07903 689 268.

Many thanks,
David.

---

Link to earlier protest letter to local paper.

Barnet Times: "Councillor Andrew [Mr. Recycling] Harper announces bid for Barnet Council leadership"

Link to Barnet Times

"At last night’s Annual Council meeting it was announced Cllr Hillan was stepping down with immediate effect because of her ongoing battle with cancer.

"It was announced Cllr. Harper will act as interim leader until a formal leadership election can be arranged, and he said today he will be standing in the contest."

NLWA issues a newsletter!

Click above for 'newsletter'

Recycling Tragedy - and DEBATE ON WASTE REDUCTION

PLUS!

Click for Parliament web site

90-minute Westminster Hall debate on

Government Policy on Waste Reduction

Wednesday 18 May, at 2.30pm