Lib Dem Councillors burnt by their own incinerator.

Liberal Democrats fail to stop Viridor's plan to incinerate more in Sutton. The Lib Dem's eco-mask has slipped, putting profit before people, while increasing traffic and pollution. Residents have been dumped on and their health is at greater risk.

Local artist helps to clarify the tail wags the dog

Sutton's Lib Dem duo, Cllr Manuel Abellan and Cllr Hanna Zuchowska, were left helpless at the 17th December Waste Partnership Committee Meeting, as the impact of the news to burn an extra 47,000 tonnes of waste per year in Sutton hit home.

The Council's double act sat stony-faced, looking browbeaten, as they listened uncomfortably to an officer trotting out feeble excuses for the billion pound company's plan to burn almost 50,000 tonnes more just 800m from homes and schools.

Despite already knowing their contractor had been given the permit to burn up to 347,000 tonnes of waste, they gave an Oscar winning performance and didn’t include this information in their statements on the night as they scrambled to talk tough even though they were too late to do anything to stop it!

Against public will, Sutton Lib Dems granted planning permission for the incinerator in 2013. Proving themselves to be at the mercy of forces they unleashed and being incapable of stopping what they started, they are now reaping what they sowed. Despite the trerrible effects of air pollution on child health, it seems incinerator enthusiasts are resigned to see even more waste burnt in the suburbs.

Even with the knowledge that incineration releases thousands of tonnes of CO2 and noxious gasses all day, every day, Abellan mused “I think it's better to have an ERF [incinerator]” than to sequester plastic to landfill. Regarding the permit to burn more, he continued with no sense of irony, “it feels like a bit of an opportunistic decidion by Viridor” but in the same breath “there is a need to accept a one year dispensation”. When trapped in a deal with the devil, perhaps they've nowhere else to go?

Under pressure, Sutton Council declared a climate emergency in 2019, around the time a 7%¹ increase in waste was sent to the incinerator. Surely if their plan is to increase recycling then there's no reason to choose to burn more? Now is the time to starve the incinerator, not feed it!

Since then, the Lib Dems’ first attempt at achieving cleaner air saw them trial Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Stubbornly pushed through with scant consultation and justified as ‘pollution cutting’ they're now powerless to resist a permit that will release more climate gasses than road closures would save.

Sutton's incinerator just 800m from homes and a school.

In a landmark case, air pollution was listed as a cause of a young girl's death in South London. The court detailed how she was exposed to Nitrogen Dioxide pollution in excess of World Health Organization guidelines. Locally, Sutton's incinerator has reported repeat emissions breaches, and roads in Beddington & Hackbridge have seen increased and displaced traffic from HGVs bringing hundreds of tonnes of trade waste and rubbish from other boroughs.

Sources state that the incinerator currently produces more oxides of Nitrogen through its two vertical exhaust pipes in a single year than the combined output of every vehicle in the borough! Equivalent to having an extra 20km of motorway traffic squeezed onto the roads. Snapshot readings of Nitrogen oxides in Hackbridge, Cllr Zuchowska's own ward, has recorded worrying air quality measurements ranging from 59µg/m3 - 93µg/m3² NOx, twice the WHO limits. These plans could put an estimated extra 250,000 tonnes gross vehicle weight of traffic on our roads and make a mockery of the borough’s stated aim of going carbon neutral.

Every month the incinerator’s emissions reports show spikes of noxious gasses e.g. November's Sulphur Dioxide emissions reached levels 10 times higher than WHO general levels³ and Volatile Organic Compound levels reported a figure that was sky high, not even visible on their published graphs!⁴

What councillors fail to grasp is that companies running incinerators are not benign philanthropists pledged to save the planet, they are in the business of making lots of money.

When challenged in October ‘20, another Lib Dem councillor, himself living in the shadow of the incinerator went on record as saying they're “personally very happy to have it here in Sutton as a greener alternative to landfill” following a point they made in July ‘19 when pressed on emission levels, they said “everything's cleansed, it’s 99% steam that comes out of the top… there's a lot of stuff that contributes to problems with air quality and I don't think the ERF [incinerator] is one of them”!⁵

Shouldn't Sutton's councillors be protecting residents’ health, scrutinising pollution levels and reducing road HGV traffic? Perhaps their weak hand in challenging the expected request to burn more, proves they negotiated a bad deal for Sutton's residents and they are now way out of their depth?

The true nature of incineration - through the satirical lens of the @wandlevalet

¹https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/waste-arisings-up-5-8-in-south-london-partnership-area/

²WHO guidelines state a 40µg/m3 annual mean as the safe limit.

³WHO general level (240mg/m3 and 25mg/m3 for a 24 hour period).

⁴ (a figure of 46mg/m3 when the scale ended at 30mg/m3).

⁵ local area committee meeting recording Wrythe, St Heleir, Wandle Valley July 2019. Sutton Council.