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Bill for Battlefield incinerator will cost £2m more than landfill
Friday 4th November 2011, 5:00PM GMT.
An artist's impression of the proposed waste incinerator at Battlefield
A new incinerator on the outskirts of Shrewsbury would cost almost £2 million a year more to run than sending waste to landfill, a planning inquiry heard today.
Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth made the claim in its closing statement at a hearing into whether waste firm Veolia can build the facility at the Battlefield Enterprise Park.
And Friends of the Earth claimed allowing the proposal for the burner to go ahead would be a bad deal for the taxpayers of Shropshire.
Keith Kondakor, from Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth, told the hearing while Veolia claimed the creation of the incinerator would help to avoid landfill tax, which will stand at £80 per tonne from April 2014, the burner would be a more expensive option under the terms of the contract signed by Shropshire Council and the waste firm.
“We know that landfilling 90,000 tonnes of non-inert waste would cost around £9 million in 2014/15.
“Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth has supplied evidence that incinerating 90,000 tonnes was expected to cost around £10.8 million in 2014/15 under the terms of the original contract as signed in 2007,” he said.
“Veolia claim the incinerator has public benefit by allowing avoidance of landfill tax, but any revenue raised from landfill tax would go to the public purse.
“The reality is that the incinerator would only be a benefit to Veolia, as the incinerator costs the public even more than landfill.
“Genuine public benefit could come from increased recycling, as this would save more money and create more jobs.”
Mr Kondakor claimed Shropshire’s waste contract allowed for a ‘Plan B’ to be explored as an alternative to building the incinerator at Battlefield Enterprise Park.
“Shropshire Council does not need a 90,000 tonne treatment facility.”
Veolia claims the facility would be able to power 10,000 homes. Closing arguments from all of the parties were being made today.
The hearing continues.
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Yet another PFI fiasco from Gordon Brown and the clowns at Shropshire County Council
They must be mad to procede with this.
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Gordon Brown? well at least you are right about the County Council a TORY one at that.
so we have had “possible” graves, Bad Health, eyesore and now claims of £2million.. whats next
Built it and be done with it.
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We need to stop this now before its too late. I thought the government were goign to get us out of these PFI contracts not saddle my grandkids with the bill
Surely with their failure to collect cardboard violia are now in breach of contract with the taxpayer. they have failed to deliver and as such this should provide the chance to revisit the entire contract including this white elephant to a) save money and b) improve the service.
Frankly if they cant do that they sack them off and get a decent firm in like the one who does telfords collections, they know how to collect cardboard at least and dont charge such rip off prices.
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i thought we had to make cuts to public spending? this seems to fly in the face of basic laws of economics. lets cut this and keep the schools open instead please.
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I think the point they should be making is that if there was a decent recycling service (including cardboard) we wont need to landfill or incinerate the waste
If the council put even half the cash and the effort into recycling that they are putting into this unpopular incinerator there just wouldnt be enough waste left to even worry about at all
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yet another rip off con from the same clowns who bought you the concrete slinky
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Yes but if it also generates more than £2,000,000 a years worth of electricty then its NET cost is cheaper! Duh! Simples
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Veolia are currently building a larger facility of the same purpose in the Birmingham area, rather than transport waste to landfill. Why not just transport it there.
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So what your saying is that incinerators are ok, just not near you..
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Incineration is basically old technology with costly add ons to try and meet acceptable emissions. Rip off Britain again.
Why not look at the gasification of municipal solid waste(pyrolosis) – the operation is recycling, the residue being processed into pellets which are then fed into a gasifier ultimately producing syngas which is passed through a gas turbine and generates electricity. The electricity can be sold and fed back into the grid. By products of the ash generated known as pozzolonic ash is used in the manufacture of cement, carbon black is a second by product and the steam generated from the process turned into potable water + carbon credits.
The plant lifecycle is 25 years and the installation cost is considerably less than the reported GBP 20m.EX PAT SHREWSBURY.
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some one should be sacked for this fiasco
this is OUR money they are burning
the fools
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i am totally opposed to this being ‘dumped’ on a poor area of shrewsbury because they think we dont count our health or our wealth our house prices our utility our view isnt important to them
if this was in their areas in copthorne or kingsland they would never even have proposed it in the first place
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Isn’t there a crematorium on London Road
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Totally agree this would be a non starter it wards where there are monied property owenrs to lobby their cocunillors
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I’ve made exactly this point before. I had two very offensive, unengaged replies – eg ‘go to bed Katherine’. Of course, no company would try to site this where the money is.
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its the hidden costs of incineration which concern me too, non monetary costs such as premature deaths from people exposed to the pollution and the opportunity cost of millions of pounds worth of paper, cans, wood etc all being turned to useless ash when they could be recycled into new things and sold for millions of pounds to help balance the councils budgets
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this is a complete slap in the face for local democracy, they have said NO, no means no, lets hope the sec of state supports true ‘localism’ and tells this multinational foreign firm who plan this regional facility for shrewsbury to be a dumping ground for the whole county and beyond that we dont want it this is our town not some eu colony we say NON
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thats 2 million a year more for 27 years, so over £50,000,000 of taxpayers money that doesnt need to be spent! Talk about wasting our money! you would think with a top notch CEO like Kim Ryley on Premier League football star wages he would be able to use his legal expertise and renegotiate the contract for the benefit of taxpayers or extradite the council from this overpriced pfi contract
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funny they are now advertising all our cardboard should be put into the grey bin…
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hmmm…. what shall i save first? school or incinerator? social worker or incinerator? hmmmmm… tricky decision hey?
How best to spend scarce public resources to do the most for people in austere times? Burning all our rubbish or a decent motorway on the M6. New hospital for Shrewsbury or an incinerator? Bypass round Smithfield Rd congestion or an incinerator?
What would you rather have?
I cant beleive politians at shire hall are so out of touch with their communities that they think this is a priority for any one.
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Its not impossible to renegotiate or go back on a contract when you realise you cant afford it you know,
its also not impossible to win planning permission but then not proceed with the development because its not affordable any more,
i build houses, the customer very often changes spec mid way through the build, dont like it, make them pay for it, but can be done
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isnt it worth paying more if it stops rubbish just going to landfill? burning it is better for the economy and the environment so it shouldnt matter what it costs
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Maybe in cloud cuckoo land or where ever you live it is but in the real world we dont have money to pay extra for rubbish to be got rid of
THIS IS TAYPAYERS MONEY FOR GODS SAKE!
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Then don’t produce any..
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this has to be a non starter given the financial dire straits that shropshire council is in right now surely
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I do hope the recent clear out of dead wood and senior managers at shire hall included the people who dream up this grand scheme. Common sense tells you its not neccessary for a little town like Shrewsbury to own its own incinerator it would be more prudent to buy space in the plenty of commercial facilities out there as an when is needed or team up with telford, bridgnorth, wolverhampton and shifnal to build a joint strategic facility at iron bridge
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now they are asking people to put cardboard in the rubbish bins
conspiracy or cock up?
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Yet another example of wasteful spending at Shropshire Council. Time to reign them in and force through some proper cuts to this bloated and out of touch machine
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I would have thought this project could go on the back burner?
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ahhhhh… so thats what all this cardboard thing is all about… burning cardboard is a silly idea because you can earn money by recycling it but you have to pay money to burn it
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[Of course, no company would try to site this where the money is]
I think you will find that Sutton Farm, Belvidere and London Road are considered quite posh parts of Shrewsbury, Katherine.
The Crematorium with it’s chimney that still does not meet EU Standards, has been there for 40 years+.
#18
[this has to be a non starter given the financial dire straits that shropshire council is in right now surely]
Why do people think this is being paid for by the council? Veolia do not build schools or employ social workers.
I think you will find it was initially agreed as it is a source of income if Veolia take in other rubbish with a cut of the profit I would guess, to Shropshire Council, as well as the promised electricity to 10,000 houses.
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stupid stupid council. no business brains. there is only one person making money out of this and they are french.
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