In its wisdom the Conservative run Gloucester County Council has purchased a plot of land at Javelin Park which is to the South of Gloucester just across the motorway next to the Blooms Garden Centre to build an incinerator.

Councillor Stan Waddington added: “Securing the land at Javelin Park means that we can comply fully with the government’s requirements for funding an alternative to landfill in Gloucestershire.

“It is good news for local taxpayers as it means we can secure £92m of PFI credits from central government, which was conditional on the council owning a site”. Source: The BBC.

This shoots a hole though the environmental credentials of the Conservatives, surely we need to stop using landfill – burning toxic waste in the ground is storing up trouble for the future; however who came up with the idea of burning it instead? This is just going to add to the problems of global warming.

Gloucester City MP Parmjit Dhanda says

Throughout, the council have refused to take responsibility for their plans, claiming they are being cajoled into this by the government – something Minister’s have refuted. This decision is local. This week their announcement has revealed the truth – they want to build an incinerator at Javelin Park.

I am deeply disappointed that the council continues to deny what its plans are. It defers blame onto the government but, put simply, it is the council’s decision to build an incinerator despite their manifesto commitment to oppose it. Let’s be perfectly clear – there is a choice here. They could scrap their plans for an incinerator and instead use their resources to improve the council’s recycling rate which currently stands at a meagre 36%. Friends of the Earth and Labour both agree that we should set a more ambitious recycling target of 80% by 2020.

Dhanda has a petition which you can sign here.