Waste group fury at council 'insult'

Jan 13 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

A COMMUNITY group last night accused a council of deliberately trying to exclude public input into major waste plans.

BAN Waste has suspended its partnership agreement with Newcastle City Council amid claims that the authority has broken an agreement to give the group a two-month consultation period on a strategy which sets out options on how to deal with 40,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste a year from the former Byker incinerator site.

The group has written to the council’s managing environmental impact overview and scrutiny panel, which meets today, to recommend to the council executive later this month that the proposals must be properly consulted on before a decision is made.

BAN Waste was set up eight years ago following a public outcry over plans to double the size of the Byker incinerator.

The aim of the group was to bring officers, councillors and residents together to explore and seek a consensus on the best waste strategy for the city. But the group said the relationship has broken down after its was given the 65-page waste report only three days before Christmas and asked for a response by January 5.

This was described by BAN Waste chairman Paul Roberts as an insult and a disgrace.

BAN Waste member Nick Fray said: “There is little doubt in our minds that this is a deliberate attempt to exclude community input from the decision making process.

Dan Alliband, spokesman for BAN Waste, said: “The waste strategy is the biggest decision councillors will have to make and will decide the city’s waste policies for the next 20 years.

“The fact that BAN Waste has been given just six working days over the Christmas holidays – when people take holidays and are therefore unavailable – to comment on this complex report is a slap in the face for democracy.

“We call on the scrutiny panel to recommend to the executive that the council follow their own guidelines on community consultation and delay a decision until a proper consultation has taken place.”

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