Guildford Anti-Incinerator Network (GAIN) said the draft plan was an attempt at “changing the rule book as if to pave the way for incinerators”. The group particularly fears that a plan for an incinerator on the local Slyfield site could be reactivated. This was rejected in December 2001 on the grounds that the site was too small and that there would be environmental problems.
GAIN spokeswoman Kate Gallagher told letsrecycle.com that the draft plan “lays us wide open to incinerators, and it’s only a matter of time”. She predicted that the idea would be received by the public like “a red rag to a bull”.
But a county council spokeswoman said GAIN was “talking absolute rubbish”.
The plan did not rule out energy-from-waste plants, she said, because it had to cover the long term, but did not propose any either. The county intended to emphasise minimisation, reuse, recycling and composting, she added.
The council was also angered by GAIN’s statement that Surrey retains 100 million of private finance initiative credits given in 1998, which it “appears to be saving for mass-burn incinerators”.
The spokeswoman said: “This was credit for capital spending over the whole 25 year term of our waste disposal contract.” She said Surrey had agreed to an extra 500,000 in recycling credits for the county’s 11 district councils this week.
Surrey approved a proposal from SITA Surrey Waste Management for an incinerator at Capel last year, but this was overturned when objectors took the matter to judicial review in December. The council must consider the plan again if the applicant resubmits it, but this has not yet happened, the spokeswoman said.
The structure plan is due to go to an examination in public in November 2003 and to be adopted in 2004.
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