Anger over 'nimby-ism' claims

Jul 29 2009 By Jack Abell

BUCKS Residents Against Incinerators (BRAINS) have hit out after a Bucks County Councillor accused another anti-incinerator group of scaremongering.

Martin Tett, Buckinghamshire County Council's (BCC) cabinet member for planning and environment said that he believed that SAVI, a group set up to oppose a possible incinerator in the north of the county, were using scaremongering tactics to put people off an incinerator being built in that area, and said it was a case of nimby-ism.

This has incensed BRAINS, who have fought BCC over the possibility of an incinerator being built near Beaconsfield.

Peter Brogden, chairman of BRAINS, said: "This is not about nimby-ism or some misguided health and safety concerns, as BCC and Mr Tett claim. It is simply a case of miscalculation and a head in the sands attitude of BCC on about every measure you could consider. They are about to make the biggest single economic error in the county's history. What does it take for them to reconsider?

"The financial justification made by BCC for a municipal incinerator, already deeply flawed by their overestimate of future waste volumes, is totally invalidated by the threefold increase in cost to dispose of incinerator bottom ash which will follow on the probable reclassification by the Environment Agency of it as a hazardous waste."

A decision on the location of that facility will be made towards the end of this year, and BRAINS are continuing to fight BCC on the issue.