Make this blog yours, let me hear your voice

To start this blog, I would like to explain the reasons for why it was started. The lack of accountability and transparency of the current administration at County Hall has left thousands of their supporters aggrieved, seeing that local democracy has been taken away from them.

We are simply not being listened to, not nationally nor locally, so I will break the mould and take up as much mandate from you, here, as you want to empower me with.

Additionally there is my direct email facility and if need be, my telephone contact. I will not use Facebook or twitter as it is not necessary.

Let me know what your concerns and causes are, what issues you want resolved in Henstead and when policies are discussed at County Hall, this blog will test your support for them, regardless of party politics.

Please, in the interest of others concern here, try and keep a conciliatory tone and language, as I will not let strife gain control, or allow this blog to be used to denigrate other residents who come here to communicate their thoughts. We all want recognition and should be able to deal with each other with respect, those partial to party politics and those who are ordinary residents both want to air an issue of concern, will want to give their support for one or other County Hall issue. We can do this.
Our personal beliefs should not overrule or distort common decency and respect for human kind here.

I hope that that this clarifies my moderation conditions. Make this blog your vehicle for change at County Hall.

Our future

is sadly determined by these two chaps getting on really well.

How we should help our councillors.

Today’s news is that councillors will debate the incinerator in full council and then come to a decision after debating the ins and outs.
It is down to the officers who helped to draft this contract with CW, to now realise that democracy is not to be rumbled with fear and secrets.

New members got elected because we want to see officers act up to the waste hierarchy we once choose. To continue considering such a plant, when the electorate has clearly said NO to four EFW incinerators, the other three locations which have been kept secret, would be tantamount to declaring war on the public.

Nobody can accuse us of not having tried. We mandated the Tories in 2000, with 70% of us saying yes to reduce, reuse and recycling. Nothing was done, but the agenda subverted by adding incineration into the mix. In 2006 NCC looked into landfill mining, but never looked at it again as they had an agenda of Incineration. Their plans for a Costessy plant were abandoned, much money wasted, and then they bought Saddlebow Kings Lynn for a tidy sum.

Every step of the way they ignored our wishes and pressed ahead with contracting an outdated technically backward and polluting plant, with a company that has a record as long as my arm for polluting the environment and people. A company who has not built such a jobs burner since 1995.

What we all can do is to get busy on your local respective council, town council or parish. Or try and get two or three villages to act together. Investigate and earmark a site for your recycling and then inform all the parishioners, most of them will see the sense to replace lost local grants with income from our locally gathered waste.

Paper, valuable plastics, cans tins, old aluminium appliances, pots and pans, paper and even clothing. Not only will this stop pollution to transport it, burn it and paying for this process, you would gain locally reduce the precept, or help those who can do with some help, or whatever you decide locally to do with the income.

If we decide to do this on a large scale in Norfolk, incineration will not be viable or justifiable. Recyclers will fall over themselves to provide you with the required bins. So if some councillors think they can go belly up and commit us for decades ahead to paying vast sums to pay for a pollution machine that is not working due to the lack of waste, think again.

NCC has broken the contract with the public, so are we are still obliged to pay for waste disposal in our council tax? Why should we pay for something we are doing ourselves?
Then there are Sweden and Holland, both competing to buy in waste for their much more modern EFW plants OUR WASTE RESOURCES.

Why Bill Borett should resign

This is what I wrote in response to the EDP’s simplistic arguments in favour of Cllr. Borretts NCC leadership. Councillor Chamberlin from Diss, proposing a last ditch visit for councillors to another waste burner, to familiarise and see how it works is utter eyewash.

There is already an over capacity in waste burners, they are competing for OUR waste and to add to it would be utter futility. Cllr. Boretts is directly connected to the whole history of secrecy over the contract, signed without planning permission, with taxpayers paying for every lawyer in the inquiry.

I’m fine with an Independent cllr leading NCC, with Cllr. Dobson, a Tory, deputising. What I would object to is anybody who is implicated in the affair, such as Mackie, Borrett, Jordan or dare it is even considered Ms. Thomas, who is partially responsible for the Ofsted related failures in my view, these cllrs. should be happy that they still have some activists working for them and getting them elected.

“I say it again, what would be wrong with an Independent councillor standing as leader, deputised by cllr. Dobson who has his constituents at heart and is interested in creating jobs through more recycling. The diversion proposed by Cllr. Chamberlin, an arch proponent of the Saddlebow PFI jobs burner expense, to visit another incinerator and be shown round, familiarising cllr.s with the object she so desires, is utter eyewash. Why not visit Houthalen in Hechteren, Belgium and see a sustainable British plant chomp its way through a massive landfill site, closing the waste circle, and without emissions, Ms Chamberlin?
http://energy.cleartheair.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Group-Machiel-Joint-Venture-26-May-2011-press-release-v-FINAL.pdf
Cllr. Borrett still has party politics in mind, not the future of Norfolk voters and their behest, or the need to establish some long term jobs to pay for all this housing his fellow party members have planned for us. He is the proverbial Limbo stick that needs exchanging before anybody’s going to start dancing.

Trowse new deal ground and P+R

Today’s news in the EDP speak of
‘A major development of almost 700 homes on the edge of Norwich has failed to win the support of the Broads Authority – because of “significant” concerns over its impact on Whitlingham Country Park and wildlife such as kingfishers and bats.’

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/wildlife_worries_over_plans_for_670_houses_near_norwich_1_2170553

Although it is brownfield land that should be developed primarily, it is not just the wildlife issues but sustainability that should govern such development, hence I concur with Prof.Burgess reservations regards to traffic. meeting residents in Trowse, these two issues are vital; to existing residents, as the inclusion of 670 more properties would increase Trowse’s size by 2/3.

I commented on the article saying the following
‘Trowse village, just as in Poringland and Framingham Earl, has no spare school places left and any development of housing would inevitably result in extra traffic being generated. Bremen developed a car free housing development with bus and tram access as well as a communal car pond. The housing is usually more spacious as no parking spaces are required, and as Trowse is close to the city, this could be an option for the future. But without a school any new families moving into new housing would inevitably lambasted with a guaranteed fuel bill to school their children, most likely on top of a substantial mortgage. Apart from impact on Whitlingham country park, it is the unsustainable nature of the proposed housing that should be opposed.’

The re-designation of Bixley Park and Ride site from the first initial proposal, to a field near Arminghall is also unacceptable to Trowse residents as it generates more traffic along a narrow access White Horse Lane, rather than accessing the City via the existing, much more appropriate A146 coming in on Martineau Lane/Barratt Rd.

It is to be seen whether the parish and district councils can reconcile their needs with that of the other villages in Henstead and build a new medium size school and maybe enabling a new six form at Fram Earl in the longer term, furthering our children, locally, thereby decreasing the dependence to travel, as well as cutting people’s energy bills.

Radio Norfolk debate skewed?

Today I finished delivering my leaflet and I had a tremendous response from residents from a variety of backgrounds and political allegiances. Henstead is growing at a fast speed and the infrastructure is not keeping up, The sewage system is backing up and overflowing in Stoke holy X and equally in Poringland.
Whilst on my Brompton cycling through the villages I have failed to meet or discover the lesser spotted UKIP candidate, nor have I encountered anybody else from our party political palette of colours.
It was an enjoyable two weeks of discovering muscles I thought I never had…:)

Thursday 7 pm, myself and other Independents have been invited to the Radio Norfolk debate with Nick Conrad and the party politicians. The programme will be heavily cut down to some 50 minutes from an hour and a half debate.
The format has been organised by the BBC. The party politicians are sitting on the panel in front of the audience with Independents candidate having been refused parity, they are sitting with the audience in the front row.
When given time to speak, my plan is to address the audience, as I have nothing much to say to the panel.

The two following questions have been submitted, whether they are asked is up to the BBC and Nick Conrad.

” Given that the Conservative party made out that planning permission
for the incinerator was a mere bagatelle, why was it necessary to sign
a liability clause and contract without it?”

“Given that the national Planning Policy Framework is now in force, why is it that
Housing in Poringland and Framingham Earl has become a
developers charter beyond the Local development plan, with no school
spaces left, the doctors, road and sewage infrastructure all stretched and not coping with the extra housing?”

Now to that well deserved soak….

Talking to residents in Surlingham today, reminiscing about last weekends ‘Bossel competition, which everyone enjoyed tremendously, and about their needs and expectations. Schools have been mentioned, equally the state of democracy, the complacency at County Hall and the underhand way the incinerator has been handled. They were aghast at the secret incinerators planned, with sites still having to be announced during the election, but will they?

The current proposals for housing in Poringland and Trowse are questionable as Framingham Earl school, as well as Trowse primary are full to the brim, with many children already schooled outside Henstead, a wholly unsustainable situation. We should not ask potential new residents, who will be moving into these proposed houses, to look to Norwich and wider Norfolk for a school to take their children. Henstead needs a new school! or an extension to the existing schools, so the next tranche of housing should ideally be proposed with a new school. Spending an hour or more each day to transport children to and from school, at high energy costs is unnecessary and avoidable. We can do better.

Thank you Henry Bellingham MP

My letter to the EDP in response to Henry Bellingham MP’s presentation to the Kings Lynn Inquiry.

A responsible stance most of us support

After years worth of argument and debate in this paper, it is refreshing
to hear Henry Bellingham MP speaking for the majority who want to see a
sustainable future solution to our waste and of alternatives, EDP 11/04,
by Doug Foulkner, and little mentioned here. He spoke for all those who
voted to reduce, reuse and recycle and he rightly points the finger at
NCC when he speaks of an unethical, unprofessional, incompetent and
secretive culture.
He is to be applauded for mentioning that there are cheaper
alternatives, it is about time that we reign the debate back to what
matters, more jobs, apprenticeships and a future to look forward to
living in.

The British made APP gas-plasma plant, without emissions, efficient and
resourceful, is just one solution, Mechanical Works, already working in
Kings Lynn, is another, there are many modern means to tackle our waste.
Much of which could be recycled in the community, not provided to NCC
for free, but the proceeds used were grant systems have dried up. What
is important that we close the circle, from production to consumption to
recycling and reusing. What is re-usable is not waste but a resource, we
can mine our old landfill sites for resources and reinstate them to
woodland, and expand recycling to more businesses. This British made
plant should be supported, because it deals with landfill and household
waste, its scope for engineering export is huge, even to China, were
pollution is a big issue. Recycling creates five times as many modern
jobs than this outdated, backward proposal, it is in our interest that
we can avoid polluting half of Kings Lynn and offer a future to the next
generation. Three more of the same incinerators are planned for Norfolk,
as inefficient in what little they promise than the first one. They are
rarely mentioned by the cabinet, so aptly called secretive by Mr.
Bellingham MP. This coming election on May2nd. you are the arbiter, more
of the same three dirty incinerators, or a new more open agenda, with
more Independents, representatives that speak for all residents and who
have a plan B, with more jobs and a better solution. Ending to say that
ultimately, the waste/resources belong to you and they have a value.

Ingo Wagenknecht
Independent candidate for Henstead
the Oaks
Rockland St. Mary.

How to sort out our landfill risks

Many of you might feel slightly nauseous of the arguments proponents for incineration have put over, as they have been amplified by the local EDP over and over again. What we did not hear much of are the alternatives to incineration and what this could mean for us in Norfolk.

APP is a British company that has developed a new modern process called gas-plasma. It has the capacity to deal with both, household and existing landfill waste and without emitting dangerous substances.

http://www.advancedplasmapower.com/solutions/process-overview/

The recent inquiry, where I flagged up this method, as well as point to the fact that ‘the waste belongs to us’, has to decide whether Cory Wheelabrator, the company behind the bid, has a valid proposal.

Let us look at it, CW has not build a plant since 1995, so it cannot be incorporating the most modern methods. It has a record for environmental pollution and has been in court a few times, so how is it possible that this company has signed a secret commercial contract with NCC, without even having planning permission? How is it possible that NCC signs a liability clause for £20million, again in a secret contract, when this company might not get the permission to site their backward ‘jobs burner’?

In 2000 we were asked by NCC via a large public survey, what we think of Norfolk’s future waste hierarchy and some 70% of returned forms showed that we wanted to reduce the waste produced by industry, re-use what possible resources we could, and to recycle the rest into new products.

Due to the lack of a national recycling strategy that demands of industry to take up a certain percentage of recycled materials, it is still cheaper to make virgin plastics, despite the massive pacific rubbish patch made up of plastics, very slowly breaking up and dispersing polymers into the water column, just to paint a picture of something to avoid in future, cause we can do better.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

Companies that produce plastic goods should be encouraged to convert their processes and re-use our recycled resources for new goods, closing the circle, or adopt alternatives to plastics in future.
Those who comply and do better than the required goal are made examples of and given some financial rate relief, whilst those who refuse are subject to a ‘must do better fund’ paying for this rate relief.

Now we come to household waste and why APP gasplasma is the better more appropriate process.
Firstly, the waste we produce belongs to us, so should we decide within our communities to recycle our own valuable waste and use it to bring down the local precept, or fund local causes, as we see fit, then there is nothing but our own inertia to stop us doing just that.
All the while we are being charged for landfill and we are still adding to it, our existing old sites are emitting methane, leachates and more, so to not think about it only leaves a legacy for our children to deal with, a monumental irresponsibility some would say.

Gasplasma plants are not only without emissions, they can deal with whatever waste we have, household waste and landfill waste. The waste gets gasified and with the help of a plasma arc, destroyed, leaving a gas that gets cleaned up and either used in cars,to make electricity or to heat homes.
Landfill mining means that we restore the land to woodland or for public amenities, lesser landfill charges, reusable valuable metals, plasmaroc, an inert building material for use in road building and more, and ample gas to use, not to mention the compost and soil.
again closing the circle further by bringing back land into some use and employing people in modern practises.

All over Europe incineration is closing down, because recycling has taken much out of the waste stream, incinerators can’t run on very little they need large quantities and our waste forecast is down, better alternatives available. Germany recycles 13% of its annual raw material needs, a business worth 6-10 billion Euro’s. Holland is buying in waste for its incinerators, there is a competition for waste, so this one in Kings Lynn, out dated, dirty and unwanted, should not be build, because recycling generates five times as many jobs as incineration does.
For too long has our waste gone a linear way, we have to close the circle or end up drowning in our own waste.

APP’s process is cutting edge technology which even China might be interested in, technologically cutting edge used on Belgium’s largest landfill mine for the next 40 years, so I expect some sort of commitment to indigenous technologies and sense from NCC.

Fact is, that whoever runs this jobs burner, will be in charge of monitoring, they can decide when these ten days are and at what time into the process they will monitor.
The most dangerous emissions to humans are PM2.5’s, small particles able to enter our lungs, will not be measured by this plant. Whilst much was made of Roydon common and the nearby bog ecology and nothing found that could damage them, the contemplation to human life forms was somewhat absence.
The south east of Kings Lynn and East winch and the surrounding villages are all downwind of the plant and the winds blow north east, northerly for 280 days/year. Norfolk’s largest blueberry farm is just down wind.

NCC is willingly blighting many houses, when far better, more modern alternatives exist.
The company contracted to KLBC to collect and re-use waste and turn it into building products street furniture and fencing has started working and as yet KLBC are happy with them.Long may it continue.

If South Norfolk’s residents are not allowed to burn their household waste in the garden, then these same councils should not be surprised to find opposition to their plans burning it in this planned jobs burner. And we have not even said a word about the disincentive incineration poses to recycling, having to feed this machine.

The steam and electricity it is supposed to generate is nothing in comparison to a gas-plasma plant, it is inefficient. The impact the hundreds of lorries feeding this burner will cause, with Hardwick roundabout already at capacity, the distances the waste is travelling at high energy costs, it all adds up to a bad idea we should not pursue, because….

like said before, everything has a beginning and end, we should be trying to close the circle, because we own our resources/waste and have options to recycle and use the returns for our local communities.