York Greens Slam Tockwith Incineration Scheme

18 NOV 2009

Green Party Councillor Dave Taylor has called on North Yorkshire County Council to prevent the building of a gasification incinerator in Tockwith, 5 miles outside York. Dave has called the proposals "ugly, speculative and dangerous."

The scheme, by BCB Environmental, has already been the subject of one planning application which was withdrawn in the face of fierce local opposition in October 2008. The facility, which intends to use heat from waste incineration to generate electricity, is only a few hundred metres from a residential area and children's playground.

Dave Taylor is very concerned by the risk to public health.

In a letter to North Yorkshire Council he wrote "The safety of gasification incinerators is not proven, and I do not accept that their Environmental Statement is a robust model of the worst-case scenario. We have seen cases in this country and abroad where incinerators and gasification plants have been operating without their pollution control devices working correctly for long periods[1]."

The existing BCB hazardous waste facility at Tockwith has twice been the site of incidents attended by the Fire services last year - in June, toxic waste began leaking flammable gases, prompting the cordoning off of the entire area.

Dave Taylor said, "BCB's record is highly questionable. They even went so far as to deny that their gasification plant is an incinerator on Radio York. The UK Government says it is, the EU say it is, and I say it is."

"There is, quite simply, no way to dispose of hazardous waste without creating a hazard. The best that they can do is to hope that they can catch all the poisons before they reach the atmosphere.

"That isn't good enough. We need a comprehensive waste strategy with reduction, reuse, recycling and composting at its core. We should not be distracted by speculative and dangerous schemes like this - whose creators admit that they have no connection with the developing waste strategy for York and North Yorkshire[2]."