While LibDem leader Ed Davey has called for a review of the Environment Agency’s decision to allow permit-busting polluters Viridor to burn even more rubbish at Beddington, Croydon Labour MPs stay silent.
By STEVEN DOWNES
Going for the burn: the Viridor incinerator at Beddington could be burning waste for another 20 years
Croydon Council under Tory Mayor Jason Perry failed to respond to the Environment Agency’s two consultations over an increase in the volume of waste to be burned at the polluting Viridor incinerator on Beddington Lane.
Inside Croydon was the first to report that the Environment Agency had agreed to allow to increase “the processing capacity of the energy recovery facility to 382,286 tonnes per annum, an increase of 34,864 tonnes”.
Croydon is one of four councils who form the South London Waste Partnership, which has a £1billion, 25-year contract with Viridor to burn rubbish at Beddington. Under usual weather conditions, the downwind areas worst affected by the incinerator’s noxious emissions are Selhurst, Broad Green and Waddon wards in Croydon.
Unlike Croydon under Tory Mayor Perry, the three other SLWP councils – Kingston, Sutton and Merton – all responded to the EA’s consultation, all with objections. According to the Environment Agency’s 136-page report released this week with their decision to extend Viridor’s licence, there was not a single response in favour of the expansion.
Sutton’s Liberal Democrats, who granted planning permission for the incinerator under very dubious circumstances in 2013, have this week written to DEFRA minister Emma Reynolds asking her to call in the EA decision.
Objecting: it was Ed Davey’s LibDems in Sutton who granted planning permission for the incinerator
In a letter signed by five LibDem MPs, including Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington), Luke Taylor (Sutton and Cheam) and party leader Sir Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton), they said, “The decision has been taken despite strong opposition from local residents, Sutton Council, the South London Waste Partnership and local MPs…
“Approving the application despite the lack of a clear need, and in the face of significant local opposition, risks undermining public confidence in the planning process and the Environment Agency.”
Though it might be said that the EA lost all public confidence some time ago.
The letter also points out that Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has stated that there is no need for additional incinerator capacity in the capital.
Sutton’s lone Labour councillor, Dave Tchil, described the EA decision as “an absolute betrayal of Sutton’s residents”.
Tchil, a councillor for Hackbridge, said, “For years, our community has battled odours, relentless emissions, and even fires and shutdowns, all the while incinerator enthusiasts have repeatedly failed to prove they can operate in harmony with the local neighbourhood.
Misleading: Croydon Tories, including Jason Perry, misled the public with this leaflet, when they knew the Beddington site had been chosen
“We would not be in this position if the Sutton Liberal Democrats hadn’t actively instigated, championed, and signed-off on their incinerator contract in the first place, chaining our borough to decades of mass waste-burning…
“It is a disgrace that our residents are being forced to bear the health and environmental costs of corporate greed and the LibDems’ catastrophic long-term political failure.”
Yet there has been silence from Croydon MPs on the matter.
Sarah Jones, MP for Croydon West, did not reply to Inside Croydon’s request for her reaction to the EA decision, while Natasha Irons issued a blunt, “No comment.”
Irons, when a councillor in Merton, chaired the SLWP committee for a spell, when Viridor’s emission breaches were allowed to occur with barely a murmur from the incineration company’s clients.
Infant mortality rates in one part of Croydon, downwind from the waste incinerator at Beddington, increased by more than four times in the first year after Viridor began plying their polluting trade in south London, according to official data. The Environment Agency ignored calls from local environmentalist Jim Duffy to conduct more survey work on infant deaths in areas downwind of the incinerator.
Duffy told Inside Croydon: “The Beddington incinerator went over its licensed emissions nearly 1,000 times in 18 months while most UK incinerators’ breaches are just a handful per year. The EA also downgraded the plant to E, meaning it should make rapid improvements or lose its licence. Yet within weeks its sulphur dioxide emissions went off the chart. Seems to be easily the worst incinerator in the country.
“Yet the EA downplayed the breaches and failed to refer to them downgrading it in its 136-page decision report.
“In the same report they said lorry emissions are outside its remit, together with a host of other objections including the Mayor saying the expansion is contrary to the London Plan and there is now overcapacity of incineration.
Consistent: Cllr Nick Mattey regularly reminds Sutton LibDems who allowed Viridor to build the incinerator
“It’s more than three years since Viridor made the application and the EA held two consultations on the question, meaning the EA must have had reservations about rewarding Viridor with the permit. So it’s something of a mystery how this has happened.
“The EA told me there’s no possibility to challenge this decision. But I gather the Secretary for the Environment could nullify it. I hope local MPs make this request.”
One politician who has been consistent in opposition to incineration and its consequences for the health of people living in the area has been Nick Mattey, the independent councillor for Beddington. “When I see people who can’t breathe, when I see residents with cancer struggling for air simply because they live near this incinerator, it makes me feel physically sick,” Mattey said this week.
“We have a mountain of toxic waste being burned right next to our homes. Our kids and our loved ones have to breathe this in just because of a corrupt planning decision.”
Read more: ‘Sickening’: EA allows even more waste to burn in Beddington
Read more: Viridor is using PR firm with links to Labour Together scandal
Read more: Infant death rates were up by 233% after incinerator fired up
Read more: Viridor’s charge sheet: incinerator operator’s eco-vandalism
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2026, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for an EIGHTH time in nine years, in Private Eye magazine’s annual round-up of civic cock-ups
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Perry made numerous promises about the environment in his 2022 campaign to become Croydon’s first Mayor. All a pack of lies, of course. And who was his Cabinet Member for Streets and Environment during those first four years? Bone-idle Scott Roche