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Yes we Khan! Campaigners lodge incinerator legal appeal

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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.

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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.”

Coming to Croydon

 

 


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