Archived press release

South coast councils to sign controversial waste contract

10 March 2003

Campaigners protested outside Brighton Town Hall today (Monday) against plans by Brighton and Hove Council and East Sussex Council to sign a controversial new waste contract on Wednesday (12 March). The contract preempts a public inquiry into the councils' waste plan and is likely to mean at least one incinerator will be built.

The controversial 25-year waste contract would also allow for only around one third of the councils' municipal waste to be recycled.

Friends of the Earth objects to the £1 billion private finance initiative contract because:

• The contract will be signed before a Public Inquiry into the Brighton and Hove/ East Sussex councils' waste plans has even started. The Inquiry is due to begin on 13 May. Over 13,000 local people objected to the councils' waste plan;

• The contract was originally agreed under old PFI criteria. But new criteria come into force at the end of this month. The contract was originally agreed under old PFI criteria. But if the contract is not signed by the end of the month, it will have to be looked at again by the Government. New PFI rules,. Introduced in September 2000, place much greater emphasis on recycling;

• This Friday (14 March), MPs are due to vote on a Private Members Bill - the Municipal Waste Recycling Bill, which has been introduced by Joan Ruddock MP. If passed, the Bill would require 50 per cent of our waste to be recycled by 2010.

• The Government's Strategy Unit has recommended that the Government significantly increase its recycling target (currently 30 per cent by 2010). The Government response is expected early next month.

Friends of the Earth Brighton and Hove's waste campaigner, Alison Walters, said

"Thousands of people have objected to Brighton and Hove and East Sussex council's waste plan. That is why a Public Inquiry has been called. It would be scandalous to sign this deeply unpopular waste contract before that inquiry has been held. The councils should go back to the drawing board and come up with a waste plan that gives a massive boost to recycling by providing every household with doorstep recycling, rather than one which burns vast quantities of our precious resources."

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust