Mole Valley funds action group to fight Surrey incinerator

It has emerged that district councils in Surrey faced with new incinerators in their area are preparing action against the county council – partly by funding local activist groups to mount legal challenges.

” After people realise what will happen with this, we might very well get another surprise victory out of this. I think this is money well spent. “
– Cllr Tim Hall, Mole Valley DC
After a threat from Defra to withdraw PFI funding over delays to the contract, a renewed effort to establish residual waste treatment plants in the county has again put forward energy-from-waste as an option.

County council officers want up to 270,000 tonnes of annual treatment capacity under the Private Finance Initiative contract.

The Mole Valley district council area includes the Capel site named by Surrey officers as a preferred site for an incinerator. Mole Valley councillors voted on March 21 to fund the Capel Action Group to fight any fresh EfW proposal for the site.

The district, which helped fund the group's successful High Court challenge against a similar proposal four years ago, is giving the group 8,000 in match funding from its Airports and Major Infrastructure Projects Fund.

Mole Valley
Mole Valley councillors have been united in their opposition to any attempt to build an incinerator at Capel, citing the potential extra traffic and the site's location away from the centre of Surrey as reasons why such a plant should be built there.

Cllr Julian Shersby, Mole Valley's member for Capel, Leigh and Newdigate, said: “It's vital that we continue to battle against the possibility of an incinerator being built at Capel – and the endless lorries that would go down our roads as a result – and that we continue to support the vital work being done by the Capel Action Group in trying to stop nearly all Surrey's waste coming to Capel and being incinerated there.”

Capel Action Group, founded by retired lawyer John McCall, welcomed Mole Valley's continued funding, calling the decision “fantastic”. Mr McCall said the group would now need to seek ways to cover the rest of the money needed, which could be over four times the amount offered by the council.

Runnymede
Speaking as the funding was agreed, Mole Valley council leader Cllr Tim Hall wished the Capel Action Group “all the best success”. He drew attention to the fact that the argument against building incinerators had now arrived at the gates of Runnymede borough council, which is home to the suggested Virginia Water site.

Cllr Hall said: “It was quite striking the realisation that hit our friends at Runnymede, because I don't think previously it occurred to them the consequences of something like this, which are quite horrendous.

“After people realise what will happen with this, we might very well get another surprise victory out of this. I think this is money well spent,” Cllr Hall added.

Threat
Defra threatened Surrey last December with the withdrawal of over 85 million in Private Finance Initiative credits, originally awarded in 1999, because the county had not established new residual waste treatment plants as had been agreed (see letsrecycle.com story).

The delay came as a direct result of the previous opposition to Surrey's energy-from-waste ambitions.

Since the beginning of this year, Surrey county council has now renewed is attempts to seek resolution to the PFI contract, and a consultation process over residual waste treatment options is currently underway (see letsrecycle.com story).

Of possible sites suggested for new incinerators, officers have expressed the view that preferred sites would again include the Clockhouse Brickworks site at Capel. As well as this, a site for a second incinerator at Trumps Farm, near Virginia Water, would have “clear operational benefits”, they said.

The recommendation stated: “Capel would have a smaller capacity, reflecting the fact that the land adjacent to Trumps Farm is closer to the main centres of population in Surrey.”