Calls to cancel hunt for firm to run incinerator
THE search for a firm to run the controversial Tyseley incinerator until at least 2034 should be “cancelled”, councillors have said in an open letter.
Councillors from each of the four political groups represented on Birmingham City Council have published a strongly-worded letter to council leader Ian Ward, challenging the plan around the incinerator.
The city council is in a procurement process “intended to see the Tyseley Energy Recovery Facility operate through to 2034”.
But the plan has been condemned by councillors and environmental groups, who say the incinerator is Birmingham’s biggest source of carbon dioxide and suggested moving to increased food waste collection and recycling as an alternative.
The letter is signed by Cllr Julien Pritchard (Green), Cllr Lisa Trickett (Lab), Cllr Robert Alden (Con) and Cllr Roger Harmer (Lib Dem), who identify themselves as the proposers of the climate emergency motion.
It puts a series of questions to Cllr Ward, and states: “We do not believe all decisions on strategy and investment are being made through lens of the council being zero carbon by 2030.
“This has the potential to damage the message that the council is giving on carbon reduction and to hamper the commitment that it must do its part to avoid catastrophic climate change. “As you will know, what Birmingham City Council and the wider city does with its waste will play a vital part in tackling the climate emergency. Consequently, procuring a waste contract which keeps the Tyseley Incinerator for a further 10 years is highly problematic and conflicts with the council’s declaration unanimously supported by 83 councillors:
“The current course of action also damages the trust in the council by all those who care about tackling the climate emergency. Keeping this 26-year old incinerator until at least 2034 is a very high polluting and high carbon way of dealing with residual waste, and one that does not even have the ability to produce benefits such as feeding into the local district heating network.”
At a co-ordinating overview and scrutiny committee meeting last week, Cllr Pritchard, who represents the Druids Heath and Monyhull ward, said: “There are alternatives, including massively reducing the amount of non-recyclable waste through a food waste collection and better alternatives than this incinerator for what’s left over.
“The council absolutely must tackle the climate emergency in a way which tackles social justice and supports our most left-behind communities. However, where is the evidence that stopping using the incinerator by 2030 is more expensive?
“Where is the evidence that it will impoverish deprived communities? If anything, the council’s current plans for waste are worse value for money for Birmingham residents.” A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: “We take our responsibilities on climate change and the environment very seriously that is why we have created a climate change taskforce and embedded environmental considerations into all of our decision-making processes.
“It is misleading and unfair to suggest otherwise. A full response will be going to the councillors who have written the letter in due course.”
There are alternatives, including massively reducing the amount of non-recyclable waste
Cllr Julien Pritchard