Norfolk’s Proposed Waste Incinerator

Incinerator promotion by stealth

Unsuspecting staff at a Swaffham supermarket were surprised when an impartial survey they thought they had agreed to host turned out to be nothing more than an incinerator marketing exercise with the promotors only being interested in positive support for their incinerator, supported by one sided ‘information’.

It came as a surprise because usually supermarkets try and avoid controversy like the plague. You do not get much more controversial than Norfolk County Council ignoring 65,500 people in an official ballot.

Stephen Graham, Branch Manager at Waitrose Swaffham, said:


“The group’s intentions were not made clear to a member of our staff who believed it would be an impartial survey. Once these became apparent we asked them to leave the store”. 



“On such an important issue we believe it's imperative that we as a community encourage an honest and open debate and we have invited KLWIN to speak to our shoppers as well.”

The store was clearly deeply embarrassed to find themselves hosting a one sided incinerator marketing campaign, especially when it has already been rejected by 92% of people who voted in the Official West Norfolk ballot.

“The incinerator marketing team were clearly feeling desperate, this is their third attempt at trying to pass off a marketing campaign as if it were impartial research.”

“KLWIN are grateful to Waitrose for their offer and we look forward engaging with customers and presenting the other side of the incinerator debate.”
Mike Knights

Borough Council vote to challenge incinerator funding

On the 26th of January 2012 West Norfolk Borough Council voted unanimously to apply to the High Court for a Judicial Review of Caroline Spelman’s decision, to part pay for Norfolk’s most expensive project ever. It looks as though Caroline Spelman’s decision might be subject to scrutiny for not complying with her own department’s PFI funding requirements.

Norwich City Councillors show they have a backbone

The incinerator’s finance requires it to have broad support. The County Council used dubious tactics to persuade leaders of some Borough and District Councils to express support. In West Norfolk, stopping affordable home building was used as a sanction against the Borough Council for their opposition to the incinerator. Without debate leaders representing five other Districts/Boroughs voiced support for the project.

Since 2007 Norwich City Council’s opposition to incineration was public knowledge but until now the City Council had remained silent about the proposal to build an incinerator in King’s Lynn. Many were convinced the City Council either did not care about King’s Lynn or had been threatened by the County Council to keep silent. Over the weekend communications between all political parties, King’s Lynn Trades Council and KLWIN revealed City Councillors were just as firmly opposed to incineration as they ever had been. On Monday 9th January 2012 the City’s official opposition to the incinerator was confirmed when the City Council’s leader wrote to Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman.

Norwich City Council and their leader have shown they do not let party political differences get in their way. They have proven they care about the rest of Norfolk and are not frightened to stand up to the County Council when they get things wrong. This is an outstanding example of principled people doing the right thing, thank you.

EDP article 5th December 2011 (So far this response has not been published by the EDP)

Reading John Boldon’s soothing words on incineration in Monday’s Eastern Daily Press (5th December)reminded me of when I also supported incineration. Without deeper examination incineration sounds a logical solution. Once again it was presented as the only alternative to landfill. Using carefully selected words “clean energy...carefully filtered - with any micro particles removed....cleaned air released to the atmosphere...etc” it all sounded cosy and reassuring, what could be wrong with that? Mr Boldon is a professional at the top of his game, his job is to sell an incinerator to the people of Norfolk. If he does his job well, people will not trouble themselves with inconvenient details - “just sign the £500m cheque and trust us”.

I have read other statements from the incinerator’s marketing team, such as “emissions are measured 24hrs a day” only to discover this applies to just a few. The real nasties such as dioxin, mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and many others are monitored less than 1% of the time. A Freedom of Information Act request also revealed 70 to 95% of the “micro particles” referred to by Mr Boldon, are not trapped by the best available filters. Recent peer reviewed research does link ‘modern’ incinerator emissions to birth defects. Despite what you might expect the Health Protection Agency still have not conducted any health studies around any incinerators, despite announcing earlier this year [2011] they planned to do so. Peer reviewed research in Sweden, 2006, indicated a higher specification  incinerator in the city of Boras was releasing significant amounts of [known to be harmful] “micro particles” as Mr Boldon likes to call them. If, as his soothing words suggest emissions are ‘cleaned air’ an 85 meter tall stack would not be necessary, 70 meter like the neighbouring power station would do, or why have a stack at all?

It is also interesting to note, the ‘cleaned air’ discharged from another ‘modern incinerator’ was recently 100 times the permitted limit for dioxins. In Belgium their ‘modern’ incinerators were operating with just the same basic monitoring as proposed for King’s Lynn. Trials were conducted using more advanced monitoring, it revealed dioxins many times higher than previously thought and identified serious breaches, which would otherwise have gone unnoticed. In Belgium the advanced monitoring system known as Amesa is now a requirement for their incinerators. By contrast in the UK, only the most basic monitoring is proposed for King’s Lynn to meet the minimum legal minimum standard. If, as Mr Boldon implies, incineration is the only alternative to landfill then it would follow, every UK authority would be signing up for an incinerator. Fortunately some have more sense and less money to burn than Norfolk. Descriptions of some alternatives can be found at www.farmerscampaing.org

The High Court Incinerator Decision

Normally, legal challenges to incinerators are restricted to the planning stage. In Norfolk’s case the County Council’s conduct over procurement was so bad it presented an additional opportunity for challenge. A Judicial Review of procurement was always going to be a high risk because the necessary burden of proof was so exceptionally high.
Evidence showed the County Council acted badly but it was not possible to prove what individual councillors were thinking at the time when they voted to award the contract.

The County Council did not come out of this well, anyone who thinks otherwise should read through the evidence against them. This was not an easy case to mount and took much longer to reach a judgement than anyone expected.
Michael de Whalley... took considered and significant personal risk in launching this action. Had he succeeded the County Council would have faced proper scrutiny and the contract decision could have been struck down at this early stage saving much time and money. The campaign must now look ahead to when the County Council award themselves planning permission. This will be an easier challenge to make and more likely to succeed as can be seen from other cases. 

Please help support the legal case

KLWIN Raffle winners

Ticket No  09168    won the 40” LCD TV
           02073    won £1,000 worth of web design
           10144    won tickets for Santa’s Magical Journey at Thursford
           02811    won Personal tour of Parliament
           09730    won Helicopter Flight
           03581    won Tank ride for two
           04403    won Glider flight
           09573    won Pedifish treatment
           13440    won Diner for two at Leziate Park
           00374    won Dinner for two a Brewers fair
           06305    won Pair of cinema tickets
           11366    won Pair of cinema tickets
           13563    won Xmas turkey

West Norfolk Borough Council meeting held on 27th October 2011

A tiny minority of West Norfolk Borough Councillors take their instructions from the County Council instead of their constituents. Fortunately they did not show themselves at Thursday’s meeting, instead we had a triumph for democracy.

The majority of our Borough Councillors were present and voted unanimously to press ahead with plans to recycle our black bin waste. When they award a contract to recycle waste that currently goes in to our black bins Norfolk County Council’s already shaky economic case for incineration will be indefensible.

In King’s Lynn, Councillors from all political parties have demonstrated they can work effectively together in the interest of West Norfolk as a whole. It is unfortunate the County Council’s leadership do not do democracy. Is it just coincidence the County Council are axing support for the Lynn Ferry? There are many who view it as a vindictive County Council trying to punishing our Borough for having a backbone and a conscience.

Please look out for the KLWIN calendars and soon to be available raffle tickets, prizes include 40” flat screen TV, flight in a glider, family ticket to Santa’s Christmas journey at Thursford, tank ride, Christmas turkey and many more great prizes. Calendars are already available at the Lynn News office in King's Lynn.

Developer’s desperation ‘survey’

Petition to tax incineration.

Making the County Council’s leadership account for their actions

It’s now time to object to the Environmental Permit until 16th September 2011

If your objection did not get an automated acknowledgment please tell us

Legal limit allows over 21 tonnes of toxic metals to be dumped over West Norfolk