SUPPLEMENTARY MEMORANDUM BY J R HARRIS
(DSW 08)
I understand that your Sub-committee are to
consider the question of waste management in the near future.
I am a member of Wyi Forest Friends of the Earth which belongs
to SKI, Stop Kidderminster Incinerator, an umbrella group including
CPRE, FoE, local residents and district councillors. SKI has been
campaigning against Worcestershire County Council's proposals
for a PFI incinerator to be built immediately adjacent to the
town's residential area.
It is not my intention to involve your Committee
in the Kidderminster proposals, but I would like to comment on
the direction which this Government is moving in trying to resolve
the problems of waste management.
Intrinsically the Government's strategy is wholly
flawed. There is now incontrovertible evidence that the pollution
created by waste incinerators poses a significant threat to the
health of the population at large. I would ask you to examine,
for instance, the research carried out by Professor George Knox
of Birmingham University, a 27 year study which shows that children
born within three miles of an incinerator could be twice as likely
to develop cancer.
You should also concern yourself with the fact
that Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal have
all banned any further building of incinerators on health grounds.
In addition, the Manx Parliament recently shelved their incinerator
proposals following advice from their Director of Public Health,
Dr Ian Maclean.
If the Government does not change its policy,
then serious ramifications will develop. It will be seen that
they are conspiring with the incinerator business sector to protect
their interests above all others. To pursue a policy that is dependent
upon building over 140 incinerators will mean that the Government
has become a gross polluter. It will imply that they choose to
ignore the real dangers to human health and lay themselves open
to charges of criminal neglect. Charges that will be bought against
them in the European Court.
Holland recycle about 73 per cent of waste.
The Isle of Wight is to recycle 50 per cent of its waste by 2001.
Most European countries have targets well in excess of 40 per
cent. It can be done. Our targets of 30 per cent by 2010 are unacceptable.
J R Harris
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