Incinerator will benefit town!

COUNCIL bosses have hit back at claims by Warrington North MP Helen Hones that they will not come clean over plans for an incinerator in the town.
They claim an Energy from Waste Plant will actually bring benefits to Warrington.
Coun Alan Litton, Executive Board Member for the Environment, (pictured right) said: “She is dredging up old news in an attempt to score cheap political points. When we published our Waste Management Strategy in June 2008, we made it very clear we favoured an ‘energy from waste’ plant. The MP likes to call this an incinerator to alarm residents and
grab headlines by scaremongering, and she knows it.
“One of the biggest challenges we face is the need to stop sending our waste to landfill sites. Since we took over the Council nearly four years ago, recycling rates have increased massively from 19% to 47%.
“This is great news and all credit to local people but we need to find a way of recovering value from the remaining waste. A modern ‘energy from waste’ incinerator will do just that by burning the rubbish we cannot recycle. A combined heat and power plant can supply hot water and heating to local homes and local businesses as well
as generating electricity for the grid. It will produce less toxic emissions in a year than one small bonfire on bonfire night.”
Leader of the Council Ian Marks added: “The MP appears to disagree with the views of her Government’s Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, who supports energy from
waste plants. At the end of last month he gave an interview when he said that for European countries with low landfill rates, it is energy from waste that makes the
difference. He went on to say that if you can find a way of taking the heat that is generated as well as the energy, then you have got a double benefit for society.
“Surely our MP supports sustainable energy in Warrington rather than dumping loads more waste into landfill?”
Earlier this week Ms Jones (pictured left) called for the Council to come clean on their plans for an incinerator.
She said the council’s budget consultation document revealed they were still planning an incinerator for the town with a provision of £200,000 each year, for the next three years, to develop an “energy from waste” plant.
She said: “This is an incinerator by another name. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.
“The council have serious questions to answer. Do they still plan to put an incinerator on Omega? If so, why won’t they say so? If not, where is it going? Residents deserve the truth.”