A burning issue

Cornwall's waste management should never have reached this point.

Cornwall Council is in what can only be described as a lose-lose situation in relation to proposals for a centralised incinerator. A public enquiry, and ultimately the Secretary of State, will now adjudicate between it's former planning and waste decisions (which, coincidentally, have been brought together in a single department at the new unitary authority).

Let's start at the beginning. There has already been a public enquiry into a proposed incinerator for Cornwall's waste. It recommended that the previous proposals for an incinerator did not go ahead, and also that Cornwall should develop an integrated municipal waste strategy. Cornwall's seven former Councils failed to do that, instead pursuing six different District approaches to recycling and waste collections, while the County Council continued to rely on landfill for its waste disposal.

French social historians like to write about what they call the 'longue duree' in history - focusing on long-term continuities rather than the dramatic short-term events of politics and wars which they term 'eventual history'.

There are those who would say that the 'longue duree' of Cornwall's waste management are the officers at County Hall. Following the previous public enquiry, proposals for an incinerator resurfaced in the run up to the 2005 local elections. The then NOC Cabinet approved issuing tender documents for a 30 year waste management contract which included incineration. They did so without the support of Labour Councillor Jill Ferrett, who was a member of that Cabinet. During the 2005 local elections, Labour ran a petition calling for genuine, open consultation on Cornwall's waste management plans.

There was a golden opportunity when Liberal Democrats formed the next Council, with a promise of a more consultative style, to reconsider the agreement by the previous NOC Council before issuing the waste management contract. In 2005, the Liberal Democrats five recently elected MPs issued a press statement opposing plans for an incinerator. All Labour county councillors voted against the proposed incinerator. Against vigorous public opposition, the Liberal Democrat led Council ploughed on and awarded SITA the contract. Negotiations on detailed terms included a contractual obligation to a centralised incinerator that had no planning permission; that permission was then refused by Cornwall County Council in the run up to the 2009 local elections.

The golden legacy left by the Liberal Democrats for the new unitary authority's waste management is dead cert landfill tax and legal bills, with the Council liable both through it's contractual obligations to SITA, and for the costs of defending it's planning decisions. It has been reported that to break the contract would cost the Council £30 million.

As a Truro councillor, I'm aware that the community dividend from landfill tax helps to support some very worthwhile local projects, including contributing towards the Hendra skatepark and Trelander community centre. But a relatively small proportion of the total landfill tax bill returns directly to the community.

At both stages of the planning consultation, Truro and Falmouth Labour Party made representations against the single, centralised incinerator in favour or more localised waste facilities. There is no household amenity site in Truro, although planning permission was granted this year for a new site near Falmouth. I also spoke for Transition Truro against the incinerator at a public consultation meeting in St Dennis which formed part of the planning process.

Despite public debate of this issue for over five years, and a new unitary authority, the facts of Cornwall's current waste management aren't easy to assemble. SITA says fairly that it has increased the proportion of household waste that is recycled - but all that this means is that more of the waste taken to its household amenity sites is reclaimed and recycled. All of the black bags collected every week go to landfill, they are not included in the figures showing increased recycling. Meanwhile, the former district Council in this constituency area reported that four out of ten households make no use of kerbside recycling collections - that's a lot of unused bumper boxes and recycling bags, and many more weekly black bags of recyclable items being ploughed into landfill.

Cornwall Council is now NOC with a Tory-dominated executive. The new Council badly needs to bring it's thinking on waste management up to date. There's an opportunity to move to an integrated municipal waste strategy - with unified recycling services - with a single new unitary authority replacing seven former councils. From April 2010, the Council has new legal obligations to reduce carbon emissions in it's activities; is a centralised incinerator generating 120 mile round road trips going to help do that? Landfill also produces greenhouse gas emissions.

Whatever the 'eventual history', Cornwall needs a new, fit for purpose waste management strategy that will make a positive contribution to meeting carbon reduction targets and generating renewable energy in the 21st century.