by Neil Millard

neil.millard@essnmedia.co.uk

A waste incinerator on the Croydon border is "almost inevitable" and could endanger the health of the borough's children, it was claimed this week.

The South London Waste Partnership (SLWP) - of which Croydon Council is a member - needs to find a way of cutting the amount of rubbish it is sending to landfill.

Over the next two years private firms will be asked to come up with potential solutions to the SLWP's waste problem.

Croydon and Sutton councils have given assurances that there are alternatives to incineration, but Croydon's Green Party spokesman Shasha Khan is unconvinced.

He started collecting signatures for a petition this week, which he hopes will show the weight of objection to an incinerator.

Mr Khan believes the most likely site for a south London incinerator is Beddington Sewage Treatment Works, just over the Sutton border.

If one is built he says it will put the health of the borough's residents - and in particular children - at greater risk.

"Incineration is their only option," he said.

"They have got no alternative to sending it to landfill. We have ended up in a situation where we have got to burn it.

"It's going to suddenly appear. It has got to be stopped."

As incinerators generally have 100 foot tall chimneys, Mr Khan believes Beddington is the likely site as it has the room and is not surrounded by residential properties.

But, he claims, plenty of locals' lives would be blighted by an incinerator.

"It won't be built in Croydon - that doesn't mean Croydon won't be affected," he said.

"A study in Coventry has shown that infant mortality was affected when the wind blew in the direction of the communities concerned from an incinerator elsewhere."

The SLWP - made up of Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Kingston councils - has been awarded £113 million with which it must find a method of reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.

If an incinerator was chosen as that method, Mr Khan says it would produce a toxic cloud of pollutants.

"With the prevailing wind that cloud is going to be travelling in a north-easterly direction over Thornton Heath," he said.

"It will also go as far down as Sanderstead and all the way up to Herne Hill."

In February a bitter row erupted before the Waddon by-election, when Labour accused the Tories of plotting to build the incinerator.

The Tory leadership flatly denied the claims and still does.

Croydon waste chief Phil Thomas, slammed the Greens for scare-mongering.

He said: "These claims at the moment are absolute nonsense because no decisions have been made.

"I find it ridiculous that they are going around frightening people about incinerators.

"What we have agreed is that (the SLWP) will not have any of the things that we call incinerators. There is an alternative. There's tonnes of technology around."

Colin Hall, Sutton Council's waste chief, echoed this promise.

He said: "There are a number of technologies that may be used.

"The SLWP has no preference at this stage for any particular technology - what the partnership is clear on is that old-fashioned mass-burn incineration is not an option."

A decision is not expected on the technology to be used or its location until 2011.

Targets for the amount of waste going to landfill are being reduced year on year.

There are fears that by 2012/2013 Croydon Council could be sending nearly 20,000 tonnes too much rubbish to landfill.

By then for every one tonne the council exceeds Government targets by it will have to pay £150 in landfill tax.

If already implemented this would mean a bill of around £270,000 a year, which would fall on council taxpayers.