Council waste chief admits incinerator could be built in Croydon

By aworden

by Neil Millard

neil.millard@essnmedia.co.uk

Croydon Council's waste chief has admitted for the first time that an incinerator could be built in the borough.

Councillor Phil Thomas made the admission just weeks after rubbishing claims that an incinerator was being planned as "absolute nonsense".

He maintains that if a waste burning facility is built in the borough it won't be like the old mass polluting chimney incinerators.

But Croydon's Green Party claim it will be an incinerator "without a shadow of doubt" and accuses the council of trying to pull the wool over the public's eyes by calling it something else.

The Greens have unearthed a tendering contract which spells out what companies will have to offer if they want to dispose of Croydon's residual waste.

It mentions the possibility of waste being incinerated, but the council insists this is only because it cannot be seen to exclude any technology at the tendering stage and must remain "technologically neutral".

The South London Waste Partnership - made up of Kingston, Merton, Sutton and Croydon's councils - will spend the next two years deciding how to spend £113 million on a facility designed to stop waste going to landfill.

Before February's Waddon by-election a row erupted as Labour accused the Tories of secretly plotting to build an incinerator at Croydon's Factory Lane site.

The Conservatives vehemently denied the accusation and in May Councillor Thomas reassured residents again there were no plans for an incinerator after the Green Party raised the issue.

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

"I find it ridiculous that they (the Green Party) 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."

But this week, in contrast, he told the Advertiser: "Nothing is ruled in, nothing is ruled out."

This he says is because the council cannot rule anything out.

He explained: "We're technologically neutral.

"We have got two years now for alternatives to be found on how to deal with it (waste) and there is nothing that says we have got to burn it."

Documents presented to council's cabinet on Monday night reveal existing sites hold the most promise for whatever ends up being built, with the waste transfer station in Factory Lane first on the list.

Croydon Green Party spokesman Shasha Khan is outraged by the change of tack.

He said: "It's an incinerator without a shadow of a doubt. If you are burning waste you are incinerating waste.

"But they try and get round the fear of having an incinerator by calling it something else."

Other promising sites identified by the document are the Purley Way industrial estate, Purley Oaks Highway Depot and two further locations in Factory Lane.

Labour opposition leader Tony Newman has called for Cllr Thomas to explain himself.

He said: "If Cllr Thomas did know that he was party to a contract that meant a waste to heat 'incinerator' was a distinctly possible outcome and accused the Green Party and Labour Party of lying then he needs to consider his position.

"If he didn't know then quite rightly all concerned should be asking why on earth not?"

Mr Khan added: "I feel I deserve an apology.

"I'm lost for words. How can we trust the council?"

But Cllr Thomas insists in previous statements he was actually ruling out older, more polluting incinerators.

"I don't believe I have lied to anybody," he said.

"I have always said that we will never have one of those old types of incinerators, the ones with the smoking chimneys."

But he re-emphasised that the council didn't want any kind of incineration "full stop", only that it could not rule it out.