Over in Sutton, local councillor Nick Mattey is about to face an expulsion hearing from the Liberal Democrats after he dared to oppose his council’s scheme for a £1 billion industrial-scale incinerator on Beddington Lane, close to the borough boundary with Croydon.
Behind the party process was understood to be the former chairman of Sutton LibDems, John Drage. But as recent editions of Private Eye have demonstrated, there’s plenty about Drage’s conduct that is worth closer scrutiny, as WALTER CRONXITE reports
The South London Waste Partnership, of which Croydon is one of four partner boroughs, is the driving force behind the decision to build an incinerator in Beddington and the appointment of Viridor as the preferred bidder, awarding the company a £1 billion contract to operate the plant for 25 years, burning rubbish and waste trucked in from across south-east England.
John Drage: over the course of five years, forgot to mention he knew Viridor’s CEO
The SLWP’s joint committee is the democratic decision-making body. The committee comprises two representatives from each member council – Kingston, Merton, Sutton and Croydon.
John Drage, when a Sutton councillor, was a member of the SLWP joint committee for five years from its inception in 2007 until 2012, making important decisions about Viridor’s contracts.
This committee awarded two 14-year waste disposal contracts to Viridor in 2008.
Drage left the SLWP joint committee in or around June 2012. He gave apologies for absence for the meetings on January 25, 2012, while the meeting of April 25 that year was cancelled. He was expected at the meeting of June 13, according to a Sutton Council document, which also reminded members unequivocally of their responsibilities to disclose any “interests” which they might have in terms of the decisions being taken. Although Drage was circulated with the agenda document, it was Councillor Roger Roberts who gave apologies for absence at this meeting.
But Drage was an ever-present until the point at which the South London Waste Plan – which agreed to use an industrial scale incinerator – was adopted in March 2012. Continue reading →
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