Literally – the ‘burning’ issue is the Tory County Council’s impending decision whether to locate an incinerator in our rural Aylesbury Vale. They postponed the final decision until after the elections are over, probably hoping to avoid the the opposition that will be stirred up if they announce the go-ahead! However, the cat is out of the bag thanks to the Stop Aylesbury Vale Incinerator (SAVI) group. SAVI will be holding a public meeting on Wednesday May 20th at 7.30pm in the Winslow Combined School and this will be an opportunity for residents of Winslow and other local villages to hear more about this possible threat to our health and safety.
The current prospect is that Waste Recycling Group, who run the Calvert landfill facility, will be the County’s preferred partner. They plan an incinerator with a 315ft high chimney on a site near the present landfill operation. Although the would-be developers and the County Council say the incinerator would be safe there is considerable concern among leading scientists about the safety of these plants. For example the presence of harmful particles in the gasses expelled from the chimney which can drift for miles and the risks from dust blown from, lorries transporting the residual ash away from the site. The proposed site is only five miles South West of Winslow and the prevailing winds would bring the gasses directly over the town and nearby villages.
Clearly we can’t just go on putting our waste into holes in the ground but we believe that there is vast scope for increasing the levels of recycling to the extent that there is no need for incinerators such as that proposed. In fact it seems that the Tory County Council plan to abandon all hope of improving recycling rates as the proposed facility would be capable of taking 50% more than the current total levels of waste for the whole County. So, do they plan to just burn everything?
For more information on the threat incinerators pose try these to websites.
www.ukwin.org.uk (UK Without Incinerators Network in conjunction with Friends of the Earth)
www.useyourbrain.org (Buckinghamshire Residents Against Incinerators)