Waltham Forest Council leader defends Edmonton Incinerator

The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) plans to start work rebuilding and expanding the facility next year, to the fury of local health and environmental campaigners.

Protests have been ramping up ahead of a crunch meeting on Thursday, December 16, when the NLWA will award the construction contract for the £960 million project.

Campaigners opposing the project demonstrated outside the last full council meeting on December 9, alongside Turkish Cypriots angered by the council’s promise to never again raise the flag of disputed state Northern Cyprus after a fiasco last month.

Read more: Extinction Rebellion protesters block access to controversial incinerator

At the meeting itself, resident Amir Jones asked the borough’s leaders not to “rush” approval of the new plant when there are a “disconcerting number of unresolved issues”.

He said: “Surely the council should be examining whether ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ policies should represent better value for money, including new advanced mixed waste and plastic recycling technologies.

“Chingford, Highams Park and Waltham Forest are all close to and downwind from the plant. Studies have linked incinerators to increased rates of infant mortality and that is what we find in Chingford.”

Amir Jones appearing at full council on the live stream. Image: Waltham Forest Council

Mr Jones also warned the new incinerator’s capacity is likely to be much higher than the seven London boroughs' needs, which would result in waste being imported from elsewhere.

However, council leader Cllr Grace Williams supported the plan for the new plant, arguing it is the best way to “manage the climate emergency, prevent landfill and reduce emissions”.

At the council meeting, Cllr Williams told Mr Jones: “It will generate enough electricity to power 127,000 homes and heat up to 50,000 local houses and businesses – that’s extraordinary.

“Since planning was granted by the Government, other incinerators have been built and none meet the criteria this does. We must take this decision now, we can’t leave it until it’s too late.”

Read more: Call to 'take a stand' over NLWA Edmonton incinerator

Cllr Grace Williams appearing at full council on the live stream. Image: Waltham Forest Council

Cllr Williams added that the new incinerator would “run at lower levels” if capacity was low, rather than import waste from other boroughs or countries.

In a written answer provided to councillors after the public meeting, she wrote that “advanced emission controls” and the height of the chimney stack mean pollutants at ground level “will be small”.

She added: “For the large majority of the year the incinerator’s contribution is expected to be effectively zero and the predicted concentrations are well below the limits of detection. 

“It would only be for a few hours in a year that its contribution would be measurable, and this would be at level of less than 2 per cent of the current relevant air quality standard for all but a few hours each year.”

Read more: Council leader calls for 'pause and review' of Edmonton waste incinerator

Haringey Council leader Cllr Peray Ahmet recently called for the NLWA to pause and reconsider the project.

In a letter to the NLWA’s managing director, she wrote that the community “wants to do more recycling” and worries a bigger incinerator will create “an incentive to produce more waste”.

She wrote: “I am asking the North London Waste Authority to consider a pause and review of the project and, in particular, to consider whether more can be done to reduce its environmental impact.”