Call to revoke the Environmental permit for the Wisbech Incinerator

The incinerator will be metres from Norfolk, and the prevailing wind is over West Norfolk’s largest conurbation. In this article Michael de Whalley expresses serious doubts over safety and need.

The Wisbech waste incinerator now has the planning permission that it needs to be built and the permit it needs to be switched on once it is built. You can thank the Planning Inspectorate and the Tory Minister for Energy and Net Zero for the planning approval and the Environment Agency for the permit. So, we are all set for 600,000 tons of waste to be burnt each year for 40 years in a site in Cambridgeshire so close to the West Norfolk border that the emissions will only start to touch the ground inside our territory.

“Ah,” I hear you say, “we have to do something with the waste we can’t recycle, we must not landfill it, so let’s burn it and make some useful electricity while we are about it. As for pollution, if it was dangerous then the Planning Inspectorate, Minister of State and the Environment Agency would not allow such a thing.” Well, you would be wrong on all these points and maybe some others as well. Let’s have a look at a couple of them.

An incinerator’s primary function is as a waste disposal facility, this is accepted to be the case technically and in law. The Governments own analysis by DEFRA show that much of what is being burnt in incinerators is in fact recyclable. All UK Governments are committed to trying to maximise the amount of recycling that we can achieve, and demanding targets have been set that are on the way to being well and truly missed. Further analysis shows that Councils that have contracts to feed incinerators have far worse recycling rates than those who do not. Most disturbing of all is that in 2019 the UK incinerator capacity started to exceed the total available non-recyclable waste. So what are they burning to make up the shortfall? Yes you, guessed it, recyclable waste! Even so, we are building, planning and gaining consent for even more and larger incinerators. Well not everyone is, Scotland and Wales will not allow additional incinerator capacity. The EU are pulling financial support and encouragement for incineration. Is it a surprise that the earlier (failed) attempt to place an incinerator in King’s Lynn was in partnership with a US company and that the Wisbech incinerator parent company is German, both these countries have turned their backs on incineration; so hey let’s play overseas. Let’s burn recyclable materials in an area at or below sea level, producing vast amounts of CO2 to warm the atmosphere and raise sea levels. What could possibly go wrong?

View from Halfpenny Lane

Now here is a thought. What is going to fuel the fires in the Wisbech incinerator or as some have described it the ‘bonfire in a building?’ It can’t just be non-recyclable waste as there is not enough of it to go around. The Environment Agency will clearly state the general types of material that it will be allowed to burn and, in some cases, even the specific items. However, who is to know? Waste is put into black bins which are collected without inspection, compressed in a truck, transferred into larger vehicles, again without inspection, and delivered in bulk to the incinerator. At the gate the weight and a residual (non-recyclable) waste ticket is handed over by the driver and the waste is dumped into a storage hopper. There are no inspection facilities and indeed the only person who may glimpse part of the waste is the crane hoist grab operator who loads it into the furnace. So, every day for 40 years, over 1,500 tons of waste will go up in flames and up the chimney in Wisbech and there could be almost anything in it. Make no mistake, there may be sufficient, stupid and or criminal persons in our fair County who may put things in their bins that are well outside the Environment Agency permitted materials list. The odd body may not give rise to significant pollution but many chemicals (expensive to get rid of properly), electronic components etc. may well add to the interesting chemical fallout across West Norfolk. Maybe that's why the Environment Agency want the Wisbech incinerator operator to test the soil after 10 years. Do they know something about this ‘safe’ incinerator we don’t, despite having given it a permit? Remember, that permit is only issued if the Agency is convinced that the incinerator is going to be safe!

Anyway, just remember the operators of the Wisbech incinerator have repeatedly said they are ‘going to be good neighbours.’ So that’s all right then, breathe easy.

In the meantime, please write to your MP asking them to push for the permit to be revoked.

North West Norfolk: James Wild MP james.wild.mp@parliament.uk

South West Norfolk: Terry Jermy MP terry.jermy.mp@parliament.uk

Postal address for MPs:

House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA