Newcastle Labour

Last night, Newcastle councillors on the cities scrutiny panel voted on party lines, with Liberals for and Labour against incineration (3 Labour members for the motion to call in the decision, 5 Liberals against).

The vote was to try and challenge the green light given to incineration being used to deal with the cities rubbish until mid-way through the next decade and potentially for even longer. It was outlined by council officers that this long period will cover the procurement process, planning, licensing, construction and handover of any new purpose built facility that may be built to deal with the cities waste in the longer term. This may only be a quicker process if the council switches over to a non-incineration based existing or shared facility, rather than a purpose built one being built.

A coalition is being launched to carry on the campaign to stop the plans to allow incineration of Newcastle’s rubbish, with a petition online at newcastlelabour.org.uk/notoincineration
A regional procurement exercise is now about to go out to tender that may bring back bids including incineration to deal with rubbish in the City, after it was broadened from simply looking to secure landfill capacity for the coming years.

Cllr Henri Murison, Labour Environment Spokesperson in the city said "I and my colleagues across Newcastle Labour are very disappointed that the Liberals have refused to stand behind the cities historic commitment against incineration. Alternatives like Autoclaving do exist, as outlined by Ban Waste to the meeting, and Executive should have had this decision to allow incineration of the cities rubbish in the short to medium term sent back to them for further thought."

Cllr Kevin Graham, who led the call in, argued in the meeting against incineration and stated the incoherence of the Liberals on the Executive being opposed to incineration in the long term, but not in the short term. Cllr Henri Murison added "I think a lot of environmentalists and green campaigners in the city will be very disappointed with this, but the fight will go on."