If you live in West Norfolk and someone mentions 'democracy' I think you'd be entitled to raise a cynical eyebrow at least. The battle for that most cherished of values (won through centuries of trial and sacrifice) between the 65,000 or so people of West Norfolk who demand it, and the Leadership of Norfolk County Council who dishonorably withholds it, continues apace.
It seems NCC will stoop as low as it takes to hang on to their blinkered insistence that Norfolk should adopt a waste strategy that is so contentiously outdated, anti-environmental and hideously expensive that it begs the question WHY?
Surely they must have realised that at some point people were also going to question their choice of incinerator operator. Cory Environmental and Wheelabrator Technologies, who operate under the umbrella of Waste Management Inc, haven't exactly got a history as a 'safe pair of hands', an attribute you would expect as the bare minimum for a company in an industry with such potential for environmental catastrophe.
This might be especially puzzling when you realise that checking the operational pedigree of Cory Wheelabrator is no more difficult than a fairly simple Google search.
It's there for all to see...the multitude of lawsuits, fines, out of court settlements, allegations, writs, convictions and even proven links to organised crime stretching all the way back to the 1980's with a clear message that this was/is an organisation whose only consistency is the failure to conduct its operations safely, cleanly and efficiently.
It is very good at one thing though....making money, and lots of it. It seems that fines and settlements totalling hundreds of $m are inconsequential compared to earnings.
The fact that they are 'over here' scouting for new 'money harvesting' pastures should come as no surprise either. It would seem the good ole US of A has learnt the hard way since an incinerator hasn't been built there since 1995 and many towns and cities are now examining the fallout around their incinerator plants (For a touch of irony check out cancer rates in Lynn & Boston Mass.) which doesn't bode well for Waste Management Inc and their litigious horizons....I reckon they're going to needs lots more money and it has to come from somewhere.
And it is on the question of cost that NCC 's stance becomes all the more incredulous....Burning waste is hugely expensive, appox £120 a tonne MORE expensive than landfill. Why then, when there are so many better, greener, and cheaper alternatives out there, are we in West Norfolk staring hell in the face.
Could it be.....MONEY. It is no coincidence that the only potential winners in this environmental debacle will be Cory Wheelabrator and good old, undemocratic, Norfolk County Council who will stand to 'clean up' to the tune of £125m in grants and subsidies over the next 2 decades.
None of this is new of course. It's all out there in the public domain, but going back to the question of democracy, or lack of it in this context, just how far will NCC stoop to bludgeon this monstrous strategy upon us? I suspect as low as it takes or until someone...the people, throws these little dictator wannabes out of office but the question is, will it be before the damage is done?
If the 65,000 people that voted against an incinerator in West Norfolk were to get off their bums and march on County Hall it would all be over in a trice, of that I'm certain.
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