Viridor and Veolia with the South London Waste Partnership
When Viridor was acquired by and American investment house, KKR, they said their rationale for purchase was the strength of Viridor’s contracts with local authorities.
There was plenty of controversy about the Planning Consent for the incinerator in Beddington and when a process is opaque in public life, such controversies will persist.
But the reality is that the London Borough of Sutton and its partners in the South London Waste Partnership (SLWP) are tied into a 25-year contract and part of Sutton’s own rationale for allowing the build was the establishment of their own heat network – SDEN.
A failing / failed system, the ruling administration has just rescheduled its loans meaning a 47 year pay back – pretty clever on the back of a 25-year incinerator contract – is there something we don’t know?
But on top of that, Viridor have just applied to the Environment Agency for their second increase in volume since the incinerator went into operation.
The Environment Agency to whom Sutton’s Liberal Democrat administration abrogated responsibility for air monitoring are “minded to approve” the increase even in the light of 916 recorded exceedances on NO2 emissions and other pollution events.
And if that was not enough, French waste giant SUEZ have applied to put an anaerobic digester in Beddington Lane dealing with 100,000 tonnes of food waste from all over London and the South East.
We are a laughing stock – more waste goes into Beddington than the rest of the four member boroughs of the SLWP put together and if you think recycling will help – it won’t because the contract with Viridor is for a tonnage that will be made up from external sources if the SLWP does not provide enough.
Another root and branch review is needed and changes made – it may be better to pay a price today rather than leave a tainted and poisonous legacy for our children.
Leonie Cooper AM, Chair of the Environment Committee, London Assembly: “We have got to get a grip on the amount of waste being sent to incineration……….. Incineration can no longer be relied upon to manage our waste effectively……this should really be an option of last resort.”