Questions to WAG over INCINERATOR funding

Dear Mr Roberts,
Under the Capital Access Fund, you awarded Prosiect Gwyrdd Incinerator 70% of costs up to £200k for each of 2007 and 2008 (there was presumably slippage to 2008-09). In the Accounts it says
“2.3 In addition, it should be noted that the expenditure incurred during the initial accounting period (prior to the Joint Committee being established) was funded fully from WAG Grant. "
Could you therefore explain whether the 70% fraction was waived at any stage?
Secondly, the accounts show a big jump in WAG grant in 2009, with £482 772 attributed to the year, which contributed to a big surplus. Would you please disclose an audit trail relating to the awarding of this new or additional grant, including documents on the terms/application for it plus papers in the approval process?
Note
Bid info from bid-information when they first announced Regional Capital Access Funding for waste projects, which required Councils join the consortia and couldn't cover MBT that was deemed to be a part
solution. As they pretended incinerators don't produce toxic ash needing landfill, they were defined
as acceptable for RCAF.
UKWIN on Wales Waste Strategy 2009-2050.

Cardiff Council payment to consultants for P Gwyrdd/project incinerator

According to PGwyrdd's accounts for 2009/10, at http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/prosiectgwyrdd/english/news.html,

the Project Manager (Tara King) had a salary in the range £70-75 000.

Is this high?  Nick Robinson's programme on BBC radio 4 reported that only 10% of public sector workers get over £50 000.  A salary of over £60 000 is exceptional in public service.  A nice earner for exceptional 'Rubbish' Tara!

Of course, she had to manage contracts for highly paid consultants, which totalled far over budget at almost £230 000 (below). She did this from the budget for "supplies and services" of £161 000, adjusted to £191 000, but was still £96 000 overspent. And a further £82 000 payments owing were deferred to the current year.  Evidently Tara was very successful as Project Manager.

The payments to consultants in the year were (with payments deferred to the current year shown in [...])

1. Parson Brinkerhoff – Technical Advisors = £86,488 [£56 847]
2. Pinsent Masons – Legal Advisors = £83,788 [£13 497]
3. Grant Thornton – Financial Advisors = £59,705   [£11 976] 
   Total Advisors = £229,981

Has any Cardiff Cllr anked why should Cdf increase contribution to P Gwyrdd

Has any Cllr anked why should Cdf increase contribution to P Gwyrdd 
(LAs increased by 50% below) when they didn't need it and made a surplus of £600k instead of budget of zero?

Prosiect Gwyrdd
Table 2a: Income & Expenditure Account (31st July to 31st March 2010)
Original Revised Actual Variance
Budget £ Budget £ £ 
Expenditure
374,564 Employees 292,229 197,449 (94,780)
27,500 Premises 27,500 7,683 (19,817)
7,491 Transport 6,941 2,460 (4,481)
161,267 Supplies & Services 191,056 287,323 96,267
0 Support Services 0 6,265 6,265
570,822 517,726 501,180 (16,546)
Income
(139,655) WAG Grant (106,827) (482,772) (375,945)
(431,167) LA Contributions (410,899) (626,963) (216,064)
(570,822) (517,726) (1,109,735) (592,009)
0 Total 0 (608,555) 608,555

How many more incinerators can they fit in Wales?

The WAG Sustainability Committee meets today 
The Environment Agency says "Our view: there should be a clearer process in place for the siting of major infrastructure such as energy, so that environmental and climate change outcomes are maximised. For example, we are aware that the Regional Waste Groups have tried to facilitate a more strategic approach through developing the Regional Waste Plans but this was carried out in isolation of other critical infrastructure needs. This means that opportunities for energy from waste and combined heat and power have potentially been missed."

How many more incinerators can they fit in Wales?
Viridor type incinerators are NOT energy from waste 

It starves recycling industries of raw materials and prevents a cheaper, greener business model from succeeding.

The welsh assembly gov and local councils under pressure to reduce landfill are
opting for incineration of waste under the pretext that they can make electricity from the process! 

This is Waste incineration disguised as 'renewable energy'!!

We know the electricity from one of these large incinerators is pretty small, 20 or 30MW, compared with normal power stations (several 100MW up to Aberthaw’s 1450MW) and produces toxic ash and air pollution.They set no requirement on energy efficiency, despite Welsh strategy on 60% minimum. 

Can WAG justify, a guarantee of £9 million per year to this waste incineration project while 

telling us they are GREEN? 
Can  Jane Davidson justify an INCREASE incineration to 30%!!!  

Various mechanical and bio-treatments (MBT) are roughly half the cost of incinerators, but WAG’s officials were so set on incineration that they approved the £9 million/year despite adopted policy to minimise waste disposal by landfill and incineration.

Prosiect Gwyrdd is NOT  Green! The partnership is not to "recycle and compost" but to dispose of the "residuals" by unwanted incinerators at huge cost.  

Shift away from EfW incinerators

Four planned energy from waste (EfW) incinerators are to be reviewed pending decisions on whether they will go ahead at all, pointing towards a shift away from incineration as a method of waste treatment. Spiralling costs and a dramatic reduction in residual waste arisings have put a question mark over the plans to build EfW facilities in Hull, Coventry and Leeds.

The planning committee of Bristol City Council has made a decision to block an application for a 350,000 tonne a year energy-from-waste (EfW) facility proposed by Viridor.

Targets 

False to say no policy change from Wise About Waste, which said minimise disposal to landfill and incineration. This plan says reduce landfill to 5% and expand incineration up to a level of 30% - it's dishonest of WAG to pretend no policy change. 

Targets set by the Welsh Assembly Government which is to recycle 52% of our waste by 2012-2013 - just not ambitious enough to claim they are pursuing a carbon lite sustainable policy!

Putting off 70% recycling till 2025 means going slow on recycling, when some countries (Falmand/Berlgium) and municipalities have already reached this level

FOE Cymru proposed 70% by 2015 and 80% by 2020 are very feasible.

WAG claims that "a minimum level of 70 per cent recycling would be the most cost effective and deliverable level", but 'deliverable' means the dodgy deal with fractious Local Authorities in December 2008.  Over 80% recycling would be cost effective and the best way of reducing greenhouse gases

Cardiff Against the Incinerator action today in Cardiff and Newport

Join the action today....

On Tuesday Cardiff Against the Incinerator is taking action in two locations - we will lobby the Environment Agency again at the National Museum Park Place Cardiff on Tuesday 7th Sept from 12:30-1:30

Cardiff Against the Incinerator will also have a presence in Newport from 11am to 2pm in John Frost Square, in support of the Newport campaign against incineration & combustion plants which are being planned in the city.

The planned BioGen incinerator in Newport and the planned Viridor incinerator in Cardiff are both part of the same scheme, Prosiect Gwyrdd, which is pursuing hazardous and environmentally-unsound solutions to South Wales' waste problem while ignoring the wishes of the general public. Similar schemes are being pursued in Merthyr Tydfil, Barry and Flintshire.

Scientific evidence shows an association between living within 3km of an incinerator and an increased risk of cancers, particularly liver cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and soft-tissue sarcoma. Prosiect Gwyrdd, a consortium of Newport, Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Caerphilly and Monmouthshire councils, meanwhile, is ignoring science in favour of industry propaganda and documents which the Royal Society describe as "misleading".

Cardiff Against the Incinerator offers solidarity to other local campaigns against environmentally unsound waste solutions in support of a united, working-class movement across Wales and Britain. It is a member of the UK Without Incineration Network.
Contact:Edmund Schluessel, campaign secretary 07947 214169cardiffagainsttheincinerator@ gmail.com twitter: @nocardiffburner

some of our recent campaign coverage ...

Protest over incinerator plans

‎
WalesOnline - 25 Aug 2010

They claim the people of Cardiff should have been consulted about the plans to buildincinerators. Catherine Pleace, a teacher from Splott said: “There is ...

Incinerator plan comes under fire

‎
Morning Star Online - 26 Aug 2010

Cardiff Against the Incinerator activists staged a protest in nearby Penarth, where there was a travelling display van run by the council to promote the ...

New deadline on incinerator views

BBC News - ‎Aug 31, 2010‎

The deadline has been extended for people to give their views about the granting of an environmental permit for a £150m waste incinerator. ...

Splott incinerator consultation period extended

WalesOnline - ‎Aug 31, 2010‎

The Environment Agency has extended the time for people to give their comments about the Viridor incinerator. The consultation period was due to end on ...

Environment Agency extend consultation on Viridor draft permit

The Guardian - ‎Aug 31, 2010‎

Environment Agency Wales has agreed to extend the consultation time limit on their draft decision for the Viridor waste incinerator plant following pressure ...

Paul Connett Merythr Meeting

Merthyr next Thursday evening should be inspiring for anyone involved in the anti-incinerator campaign. It’s being organised by campaigners against Covanta's proposal, for a mega-incinerator.

Thge speaker Prof Paul Connett’s is famous for his experience and deep knowledge. See his profile here  I hope Councillors in P Gwyrdd authorities will attend. Jane Davidson should be there too to hear the facts. 

Public meeting with Professor Paul Connett on

The impact of incineration on health, 

the alternatives to incineration and zero waste

Thursday September 9^th, 7pm at the Orbit Centre, Merthyr Tydfil

The Orbit Centre is walkable from Merthyr train station

http://www.orbitbusinesscentre.co.uk/contact.aspx

Viridor lorry crushes pram Boy 2 fighting for life

Councillors on the planning committee aren't worried about Viridor lorries on Cardiff Roads but the parents of babies in Cardiff are especially after news of a 2year old boy who is lucky to be alive after a Viridor lorry collided with his pram as his mother pushed it along a street in Oldham. This brings home the real danger of hundreds of huge lorries driving through Cardiff's residential areas past schools and local shops to an incinerator. This is one of the greatest fears of the opponents of the incinerator. Cardiff agaisnt the incinerator say NO incinerator in a residential area.  

The two-year-old boy fighting for life after being hit by a lorry ‎Daily Mail -'An incident involving a Viridor truck occurred in Oldham this ... Video: Toddler hurt as pram is crushed by lorry   ITN NEWS Two-year-old boy struck by lorry‎ - BBC News Toddler in hospital after surviving being hit by truck‎ - Metro all 34 news articles » A taste of the future for Splott if Jane Davidson AM from the Welsh Assembly Government doesn't stop Viridor.