Legal action is being initiated in the name of Dorothea Hackman, chair of Camden Civic Society
Opponents of the planned new Edmonton Incinerator have taken the first step in seeking a judicial review of the North London Waste Authority's decision to sign a contract for its construction. A crowdfunder has been set up to raise money to cover legal costs. A consultation leaflet issued by the NLWA in 2014 makes no reference to incineration, greenhouse gas emissions or the fact that the incinerator would be burning recyclable materials.
Pre-action protocol letter sent
The contract with the Spanish construction firm Acciona was concluded by the NLWA on 24th January. On 28th January a solicitors' practice sent a "pre-action protocol letter" to NLWA chair Clyde Loakes, setting out the grounds for challenging the decision and requesting certain information. The letter from Richard Buxton Solicitors names the proposed claimant as Dorothea Hackman, a climate activist and chair of Camden Civic Society.
The solicitors' letter has been copied to all councillors and MPs in the seven boroughs which make up the NLWA and are funding the project. It lays out the case that NLWA has misled the councils into agreeing to sign the contract by presenting the incinerator as carbon storage-ready and as the best environmental option when, it argues, neither of these is true.
Read the full letter on the Stop Edmonton Incinerator Now website
Crowdfunder: Stop the Edmonton Incinerator rebuild
Stop the Edmonton incinerator now (StEIN) have engaged solicitors to mount a legal challenge against the North London Waste Authority contracting Acciona for the Edmonton Incinerator rebuild.
So we need funds, please donate what you can and ask your friends!
Can you spare a tenner, a fiver, a fifty or more? Don’t worry if you can’t right now, your support and best wishes are important too.
If you’d like more information go to stop-edmonton-incinerator.org and @stoptherebuild, but here’s some background.
On 16th December 2021, the NLWA: North London Waste Authority met at the Crowndale Centre in Camden, one of the seven boroughs implicated, to award the Edmonton Incinerator rebuild contract to Acciona.
A small group of the big StEIN movement was formed to explore legal avenues to challenge this decision being made on insufficient and misleading information and we have engaged Richard Buxton solicitors who sent a letter to NLWA.
The NLWA response on 14th January disputes all the grounds, but we want to establish that the decision to contract with Acciona was invalid.
Buxton have negotiated with a barrister, and a preliminary legal challenge will cost £6,000 plus VAT, so we need your help to start this challenge and hope to proceed with future costs protected.
You know the seven boroughs involved: Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Waltham Forest.
And that the incinerator is built in an area of deprivation undermining health and well-being.
And that there is overprovision of incinerators nationally and in London meaning this is a useless debt put on our children and grandchildren.
And we should be improving recycling towards a green economy to save humanity from global warming, not burning plastic to make energy and heat.
Dorothea Hackman, a retired grandmother from North London, is taking the lead for StEIN. This is not something everyone could do, but you CAN donate, so please give what you can. Thank you so much!
What the public weren't told in 2014
The public consultation about building the new incinerator (part of an overall project called the North London Heat and Power Project) took place during 2014. Below is an example of an information leaflet issued by NLWA at the time (click on the images to download the full leaflet in pdf format).
Note in particular that:
- there is no mention of carbon dioxide emissions
- there is no mention of "burning", "incineration" or" incinerator"
- there is no mention of the vastly increased size of the proposed incinerator
- the over inflated claims for waste prevention work in the community - "reduce, re-use and recycle". 8 years later, recycling remains at about 30 per cent in Enfield and across the NLWA. Incineration is, demonstrably, a disincentive to recycling and a circular economy.
- there is no mention of the tonnes and tonnes of recyclable material that will be burnt.