Environment Councillor slams Prime Minister...then invites him to Newhaven

1.05.44pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 28th Feb 2008

Seaford Lib Dems have protested against the incinerator for many years.

The leading environment councillor for Lewes District has slammed the Prime Minister's response to a petition calling for the proposed incinerator at Newhaven to be stopped. Councillor Eddie Collict has also invited the Prime Minister to come to Newhaven to see the strength of local feeling against the incinerator.

More than 2300 signatures were collected for the petition posted via the 10 Downing Street website www.pm.gov.uk, which called on the Prime Minister to ask his Environment Secretary to quash the planning permission given for the incinerator by East Sussex County Council last year.

This week the Prime Minister's office responded with little more than a statement of the planning process so far, incurring the anger of councillors and campaigners who are keen for a strategy based on more recycling, composting and separation than on the environmentally harmful process of burning waste.

Lewes District Council's lead member for the environment, Eddie Collict, has today written to the Prime Minister saying: "Whilst I am grateful for your response, you give a short narrative of events, but do not answer the petition. The petition asked that you stop the proposed incinerator and to do this you do not need to await the results of the latest legal and administrative processes. The case against is overwhelming and I am more than willing to set this out if requested.

"If you are in any doubt about the opposition, the widespread feeling in this area, or the exciting alternatives that are being denied us, may I invite you or one of your colleagues to come down here for a visit? You will be most welcome."

The petition launched on the 10 Downing Street website reads: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop the proposed incinerator at North Quay, Newhaven, East Sussex."

The prime minister's response, published on the 10 Downing Street website yesterday, reads:

"The planning application for the proposed development of an Energy Recovery Facility was referred to the Secretary of State under the Town and Country Planning (Development Plans and Consultation) (Departures) Directions 1999 by East Sussex County Council on 1 March 2007. The Secretary of State decided not to intervene in the planning application in her decision letter dated 22 March 2007. The Secretary of State's decision was subject to an application for Judicial Review by a member of the public in June 2007. The application was refused by the High Court on 7 August 2007. East Sussex County Council granted planning permission for the proposed development on 12 November 2007. The Secretary of State has discharged her statutory function in this particular planning application and her jurisdiction has ceased. East Sussex County Council submitted a Compulsory Purchase Order for Land at North Quay, Newhaven, to the Secretary of State on 4 June, for the purpose of acquiring the land for the proposed development of an Energy Recovery Facility. A public inquiry was held commencing 13 November 2007. The Inspector's Report is currently awaited. Therefore, the Secretary of State's decision on whether or not to confirm the Compulsory Purchase Order will be made in due course."

Earlier this month Lewes Lib Dems published an explanatory paper on the incinerator scandal. Please visit the download area of this site to view this document.