Just after 5pm tonight, Stop the Incinerator campaigner Shasha Khan confirmed that an appeal has been lodged at the High Court against the decision of the judge, Mrs Justice Patterson, over the Judicial Review of Sutton Council’s decision to permit Viridor to build a massive, industrial-scale waste incinerator at Beddington Farmlands, on the borough boundary with Croydon.
Very appealling: Shasha Khan says that the judge’s decision is wrong
Khan and other campaigners had been fund-raising frantically over the weekend, including an appeal to Inside Croydon’s loyal reader, to a £5,000 target to be able to afford the legal rights to appeal the judge’s decision.
Today at 5pm was the deadline for lodging any appeal on the decision.
Khan told Inside Croydon: “A little earlier, our solicitors filed an application to the High Court for permission to appeal.
“It was decided to focus on our strongest ground.
“The site for the incinerator is temporary and only has planning consent until 2023 for waste management operations.”
The Beddington Farmlands site is designated as Metropolitan Open Land, and was supposed to form part of an urban wildlife park, once the current sewage facility is wound-down in less than a decade’s time. Viridor is being given a contract to burn waste at its plant, 24/7, for 25 years under a deal with the South London Waste Partnership, a grouping of four boroughs, including Croydon.
Khan declined to cite any figures over the amount of money raised in the past few days, but did say that fund-raising would continue because, “The more money raised, the more legal options will be available.”
Khan and the campaign retain hope, since elsewhere in England, similar industrial-scale waste incinerators have been stopped, in Norfolk through the county council opting to cancel its contract.
Norfolk is held up as an example to Croydon Council, which since May has been under the control of a Labour group which campaigned for election on its “ambition” to become London’s “cleanest and greenest borough”.
Yet since taking charge of Croydon Town Hall, the Labour group has failed to speak out in support of the Stop the Incinerator Campaign, nor take any steps to withdraw from the SLWP and cancel its share of the contract. In an online poll being conducted by Inside Croydon, more than 80 per cent of respondents say that Croydon’s Labour council should quit the incinerator deal.
In Norfolk, council officials had warned that cancellation of a waste incinerator contract would cost tens of millions of pounds in compensation. But elected councillors took the brave decision to put their residents’ health before the commercial interests of industrial waste burners, and now their officials’ compensation estimates have been shown to be wildly inaccurate, and well above the amount which needs to be paid.
In Croydon, the Viridor contract was signed under the previous, Conservative administration, under Mike “#WadGate” Fisher and his Town Hall enforcer, Phil “Two Permits” Thomas. There are rumours, unconfirmed, that council officials in Croydon have denied access to the full, unredacted Viridor for senior, elected Labour councillors.
Tonight, Khan was again in meetings with his legal team, stating defiantly: “The fight goes on.”
- Click here for sight of the Viridor contract with Croydon Council
- “Cleaner, Greener Croydon”? Really? While paying to burn waste?
- You can donate to the campaign’s legal appeal online here
- Visit the campaign website here
- Read Inside Croydon’s archive of articles about the environmental catastrophe that is the Beddington incinerator by clicking here
Coming to Croydon
- David Lean Cinema, Paths of Glory, Nov 11
- Albert Einstein – Relativity Speaking, Spread Eagle, Nov 12-15
- David Lean Cinema, Ida, Nov 13
- Oval Tavern Folk Club, Nov 14
- South Croydon business breakfast, Nov 15
- Wandle Park community garden work day, Nov 16
- Streatham-Croydon women’s rugby training, Frant Road, Nov 16
- NCT Croydon Christmas Fair, St Mark’s Purley, Nov 16
- Personal safety training for volunteers, Nov 17
- David Lean Cinema, Effie Gray, Nov 20
- Norwood Society Talk: Lambeth’s Archives, Nov 20
- Choose Your Own Documentary, Spread Eagle Theatre, Nov 21-22
- David Lean Cinema, Lilting, Nov 22
- Streatham-Croydon women’s rugby training, Frant Road, Nov 23
- David Lean Cinema, Wakolda, Nov 27
- The Last Sense of Sudden, Spread Eagle Theatre, Nov 27-29
- Ghost Stories for Christmas, Spread Eagle Theatre, Dec 3
- Fog Horn Funnies, Spread Eagle Theatre, Dec 6
- Coulsdon Yulefest, Dec 6-7
- Oval Tavern Folk Club, Dec 7
- South Croydon business breakfast, Dec 13
- South Croydon business breakfast, Jan 24
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Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 407,847 page views (Jan-Jun 2014) If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
Croydon residents have raised thousands of pounds to support this campaign (yet more must come in) – it is a real testament to the strength of feeling across Croydon by those that keep up with current affairs in the Borough. Frighteningly many people in the Borough do not know anything about the incinerator.
If the politicians and officers of the Council will not fulfil their moral and ethical duty to consult properly with local residents then it is important that every community organisation, every Church, Mosque, Temple and meeting house raises awareness about the scale of the incinerator that is about to be built on our borders. The scale of the deliveries to the site that will congest our roads further. The potential risks to health and to the environment; and the loss of green space.
Yesterday I saw angry e-mails flying from residents in West Croydon who have realised the oppressive scale of the new building projects which are making their area yet more densely developed.
We have to wake up and realise that when something is being built it is too late to complain. We have to raise our expectations about the quality of life for all residents in Croydon and demand better. Croydon is not a dumping ground for the rest of London.
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