Incinerator faces direct action

Glos Greens have supported the campaign against the Newhaven incinerator in Sussex (see here and use search engine on Glos Green party site for more) - construction on the highly controversial incinerator plant has now begun.

However I hear this week that Stop Incineration Now!' activists have taken over the site of the proposed new incinerator plant in Newhaven (see photo). They apparently entered the premises under the cover of darkness in an organised attempt at non-violent direct action, after resistance through democratic means failed them. Several protestors formed a barricade by superglue-ing themselves to the road in an attempt to prevent vehicle access, whilst on the site itself, other members of the group 'locked-on' to machinery in order to halt further activity. They claim to be exercising their democratic right to protest non-violently in a last-ditch attempt to promote their concerns about the consequences of incinerators on public health and safety.

Let us hope that Glos County Council don't make the same mistakes by going for a monster incinerator to deal with our waste.

Background: Amidst a storm of controversy and fierce opposition from local residents concerned about pollution and health risks, construction of the incinerator by Veolia (Onyx) began early in June this year despite the fact that planning permission had not been officially approved and a judicial review of the process was still incomplete. Angry at what they saw as a direct attack on the health of the public and a lack of transparency throughout the planning process, local Newhaven campaign group Dove2000 fought to keep the issue in the public eye and generated 15,000 written objections to the scheme. By last year alone the cost of the project had soared to £145.7 million, with Brighton and Hove City Council and East Sussex County Council having collectively invested at least £2 million in legal fees to bring the project beyond the planning stage. There are a further 100-168 incinerators planned for use in the UK, though it appears that the Stop Incineration Now! network of protestors are determined to assert their belief that this money could be more advantageously spent on recycling initiatives to combat waste management problems more sustainably without creating further environmental problems for present and future generations. The activists from Stop Incineration Now! who made a 65foot high protest from a crane came down on Wednesday night.