IGNORING OPPOSITION, HERTS COUNTY COUNCIL VOTES TO INCLUDE NEW BARNFIELD IN WASTE SITES DOCUMENT

Protesters went to County Hall on Mon Nov 28 and Tues Nov 29 to hear Herts CC discussing a document on Waste Sites which contains New Barnfield as a proposed waste site. The document will go out to Public Consultation in January and February, for 6 weeks. Then it will go to a Hearing in Public, and then to the Secretary of State.

Herts CC approved the document despite the massive opposition that has been shown over the past few years, and despite a proposed amendment to remove New Barnfield from the list of sites.

Herts CC Cabinet passed the sites document on Monday, with Richard Thake, Exec Member for Environment and Community Safety arguing that there is no evidence to suggest that superior sites available. He seems not to have been listening to the evidence that a 380,000 tonnes per year incinerator is not needed on any site in Herts, and that New Barnfield is definitely not a suitable site. Stuart Pile, county councillor for Hatfield South, spoke against.

Cabinet also passed plans to move Southfield School temporarily during widening of the access road to New Barnfield that runs in front of it. This was despite the majority of responses to the Public Consultation on this move being against.

Herts CC full Council met the next day, when there was a debate on an amendment (by Malcolm Cowan, a WGC lib/dem councillor) that New Barnfield should be removed from the list of sites. 20 voted for, and 43 against. The 43 against included three local councillors (Bill Storey, Clare Berry and Richard Smith).

Clare Berry is a member of Welwyn/Hatfield Borough Council, who are opposed to the incinerator, and who have donated to the campaign against it. She claimed she has received few emails about the issue. Presumably she knows nothing about local events and is unaware of the 8 public meetings; the 7 petitions, plus questions and motions, already presented to HCC; the presence of campaigners at many meetings of council and its committees since summer 2009; and the huge vociferous protests at the site and in the town centre in June and in September this year.

Bill Storey is a member of North Mymms Parish council. He was at a meeting of the parish council on Nov 16th at which residents made their opposition to an incinerator loud and clear, and he has been at many other campaign meetings. He is not speaking for those who elected him. At County Council he claimed that people are trying to pre-empt public consultation. Is he unaware that this document has been consulted on once already, in Nov 2009, when responses showed massive opposition to the use of New Barnfield as a waste site?

Some County Councillors withdrew from the debate, or abstained in the vote, because they have to preserve neutrality in order to be on the Development and Control Committee that will judge Veolia’s Planning Application to build an incinerator at New Barnfield. They were right to do this.

Many councillors put forward good reasons why New Barnfield should not be used as a waste site. These included Stuart Pile (councillor for Hatfield South, Con), Nigel Bell (Lab), Steve Markiewicz (Con), Ian Brandon (Green) and a number of Lib/Dem councillors. Steve Markiewicz spoke of the “sea of troubles” that has faced Hatfield, and of the need “to remove a toxic cloud” from its residents. Nigel Bell and others drew attention to the problems that would be created for Southfield School. Councillors questioned not just the site but the proposed technology, and the need for such huge waste capacity when recycling is increasing.

The serious debate was marred by the silly and patronising comments of councillor David Lloyd, who attempted to present the debate as a political move by the Lib/Dems, when it is clear that opposition to an incinerator comes from councillors and residents of all parties and none. He claimed that the Lib/Dems has bussed in the people in the public gallery –people who were supporters of Hatfield against Incineration, and presenters of a petition for the Central Resources Library. In Cabinet the previous day David Lloyd did not speak loudly enough to be heard, and made no attempt to improve after the public asked him to speak up.

The library petition was about the loss of access to the Resources Library collections, in particular the Performing Arts section, if it is moved to a warehouse. Chris Hayward (Hertfordshire Local and Libraries) admitted that a huge majority of the responses to the library consultation had been against the move. He said that there will be a showroom at the warehouse for browsing the performing arts collections, and they may extend the opening hours from the very limited ones proposed. He claims that the Resources Library needed alternative accommodation anyway. He did not admit that the “alternative accommodation” is to be a warehouse for the books currently for browsing and loan; that all the study and computer space would be lost to Hatfield and Welham Green, leaving a tiny library open for limited days; and that the library move has been discussed at HCC only in the context of clearing the site for an incinerator.

The Waste Sites Document that was passed at the meeting of HCC needs to be altered before it goes to Public Consultation. This was raised briefly at Cabinet, but County Councillors seemed unaware of this issue. Specific references to the Procurement Process (i.e. Veolia building a waste incinerator at New Barnfield) need to be removed from it, although New Barnfield will still be listed as a potential waste site. This is because of advice to Herts CC from the independent Planning Inspector at the Waste Strategy Public Hearings held from Nov 15th to 25th. She advised that any general Waste Strategy should not have in it references to a specific Procurement, particularly as that Procurement might not actually happen (The Procurement is subject to Planning Approval and to a probable call-in by the Govt.) We assume that this applies also to the Waste Sites Document. References to the specific Procurement of an incinerator at New Barnfield have been added to this Sites Document since it was first consulted on in November 2009. We assume that Herts CC will remove these references.