Say No to Waste In Manvers

No tug of war over waste arising in Sheffield, claims BDR

2011-02-20T02:38:00.001-08:00

1 February 2011 | By Philip Reynolds
A shortage of waste arising in Sheffield that has led to one EfW facility applying for permission to increase its catchments area is not expected to impact on the proposed construction of a second facility in the region, the team behind the project has said.

The Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham waste partnership (BDR) has dismissed claims that there is a lack of sufficient waste arising in the region for another residual waste treatment facility, after a 225,000 tonne EfW plant on Bernard Road operated by Sheffield Environmental Services (SES), a subsidiary of Veolia Environmental Services, was forced to apply for temporary planning permission to extend the catchments area for its waste.

SES’ planning application for the extension of the Bernard Road site said: “The operating shortfall has had to be increasingly made up from Commercial and Industrial (C&I) waste arising, predominantly within the administrative area of Sheffield.

“However, this has proven difficult to achieve particularly given the volumes accessible to Veolia given the competitive nature of the market and in view of the limitations placed upon the operation of the ERF [energy recovery facility] through the planning permission insufficient waste will be available to meet the ERF’s operational requirements.”

Although preferred bidder status for the BDR project has not yet been announced, Sita Lend Lease’s proposal covers the construction of a 240,000 tonne EfW facility on Bolton Road, Manvers – an estimated 18km away from Veolia’s Bernard Road facility.

A spokesperson for the BDR Waste Partnership said: “Even if planning permission is granted for Sheffield’s Bernard Road incinerator to increase its intake of waste, the spare 50,000 tonne capacity would still not be able to deal with all the future waste generated by Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster, which cannot continue to be sent to landfill.

“It should be noted that the planning application relates to an increased intake of waste from nine local authority areas, and is therefore much wider that the BDR Waste PFI Partnership’s areas.”

Veolia Environmental Services Sheffield director Nigel Williams said: “We want to be very transparent with the planning application and make sure everyone is fully aware of the proposals. The Energy Recovery Facility currently receives some waste from neighbouring areas and the proposed change is aimed at maintaining the facility to capacity so that in turn, heat and electricity generation is optimised.”

BDR clearly do not care about waste as they are intent on wasting money to build a new incinerator close to an under achieving neighbour in Sheffield.

"Public Information Drop-in Events"

2010-05-18T12:02:00.001-07:00

A series of public information drop in events are to be held next month (June 2010) to give local people the chance to find out more about the two current PFI project proposals.

You are invited to go along and talk to people involved in the project, ask questions, find out what happens next. More details about the events will be posted on this website soon.

The informal drop-in events are at:-

WWath, Montgomery Hall, Friday June 18, 12noon-8pm

Mexborough Resource Centre, Tuesday June 22, 12noon-8pm

Prospect Road Community Centre, Bolton on Dearne, Wednesday June 16, 12 noon-8pm"

Please Go and Support AIM

BDR Plans for Manvers - A future fair for all?

2010-05-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

In the run up to Election Day, our local political candidates sound serious about the protection of the local environment and reducing councils’ carbon footprint and waste to landfill.

Why then, have they allowed the two remaining bidders for the contract to “deal” with BDR’s waste – (Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster Councils) -to choose Bolton Road, Manvers, Rotherham as their preferred site. Simply because of its central proximity between the three towns is a not sufficient criterion for its siting there.

The Corus steelworks site at Aldwarke, Rotherham was assessed as being a more suitable site by BDR’s consultants and Land Assessors. This site would allow Corus to harness energy from waste (EfW) thus reducing the company’s consumption of energy from conventional energy sources (Corus is one of the top two UK consumers of electricity). This in turn would reduce the cost of steel produced at the plant thereby making it a more viable and competitive proposition. Thousands of jobs there would be safeguarded, as a result.

Furthermore, Aldwarke is an industrialised brownfield site, owned (and made available to BDR) by Corus for energy production from waste thereby eliminating the need to purchase the land. The site is served both by rail and canal and this would allow the transportation of waste by environmentally friendly means. The canal would enjoy a long-awaited renaissance. The current BDR plan is to transport the annual waste output of the three councils (an estimated 200,000 tons of black bin waste a year– 600 to1,000 tons a day plus unaccountable tons of industrial waste types) by road between the three boroughs and the Manvers site.

The alternative would provide BDR, and Central Government, with an ideal opportunity to further reduce its carbon footprint whilst realising its current platitudes of saving jobs in British industry.

The siting of an EfW plant adjacent to a country park (costing millions of pounds of regeneration funding), food production and other industries, and meters away from a local hospital, schools and housing, merely at the whim of the two remaining bidders, and the capitulation of BDR, has a certain whiff – even before the proposed plant gets under production.

What our elected representatives have not told the electorate is that the £77.4m PFI credits from DEFRA for this project does not cover the full cost of the project, and that this will need to be supplemented by private equity and public funding through local taxes.

As the Labour Policy for the forthcoming General and Local Elections states:

“…fairness is as much about how people are treated as it is about final outcomes.”

It’s time for the electorate of the Dearne and Don Valleys to demand fairness and consideration from all local electoral candidates, and prospective MP’s, on what is currently being proposed for the Manvers site without due consideration being given to the Aldwalke site and its many benefits.

War Breaks Out in Eco Valley

2009-12-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

From Ian Andrews

Recent articles in the South Yorkshire Times outline Barnsley and Rotherham Council’s plans to transform the Dearne Valley in to an ‘eco valley’ with such revolutionary ideas as trams, trolley buses, train stations and wind turbines. Sounds very eco-friendly until you consider that, along with Doncaster Council, they are planning to build an Energy from Waste facility in the heart of their ‘eco-valley’, which could include a 65 meter chimney and the burning of waste which would spread emissions across the valley.

The Times has picked up on this apparent conflict and published a letter which highlights this apparently hypocritical stance and do mention the ‘waste treatment plant’ in the third piece under the heading, ‘Another burning issue’.

Is this a cynical effort by the Councils to show their green credentials after all the recent bad press about their ‘waste treatment plant’? If you haven’t seen the articles yet,">here they are

Next Public Meeting

2009-09-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

Dearne Valley Residents against a Waste Treatment site at Manvers

7:30pm Wednesday 30^th September

The Angel, High Street, Bolton

ALL WELCOME
www.notinmanvers.co.uk

MISSION STATEMENT

We are a group of Dearne Valley residents with the collective aim of demonstrating that the construction and operation of a waste management facility at any of the following sites :-

Bolton Road, Manvers

Station Road, Manvers

Thurnscoe Business Park

would be wholly inappropriate.

We intend to do this by showing that these sites are unsuitable for such a facility.

Key issues which we will raise include objections on the grounds of :-

Health and the impact on air quality

Incompatible usage

Traffic, vibration and road safety

24 hour activity

Noise

Odour

Vermin

Impact on visual amenity

Green Belt usage

Plus further issues which may arise in due course.

We aim to inform as many people as possible of the plans with a view to gaining their support.

When the bidder is selected, we aim to show at the public consultation stage, that regardless of which technology is to be used, that the site in question is unsuitable for a large scale waste treatment facility.

Meeting at the Angel 19 Aug 2009

2009-08-25T12:17:00.001-07:00

My Good friends,

Thank you all for your attendance of last Wednesday's inaugural Meeting of Bolton And Dearne - Habitants Against Re-cycling at Manvers (BAD-HARM) and especially for making the meeting the success it was. We couldn't have wished to have had a better launch and it was all down to your good selves (and also to those who didn't manage to leave me an e-mail contact address to whom we are all also grateful). The Campaign is very much indebted to you all. Keep up the good work and spread the word. I was informed by some of those in attendance, who'd experience of launching similar campaigns, that we have made an excellent start. Let's keep the momentum going. This is just the start.

Please pass on this message to members of your family, neighbours and friends - and please apologise, on my behalf, that I was unable to contact them directly at the moment because I have only their postal addresses.

I must apologise for the cramped conditions at The Angel. We weren't sure what reception we would receive on the Friday prior to the meeting when we contacted the manager of The Angel to book the room.

After spending Sunday morning (and afternoon) leafleting the Adwick, Golden Smithies, Lowfield Road and Coniston Road communities (500 leaflets), our good friends Allan and Sue Clark, my wife, Maureen, and I waited for Wednesday to arrive having very little idea that +200 residents representing Bolton, Thurnscoe, Wath, Swinton, Harlington, Adwick,Mexborough, High Melton, Barnburgh, and Sprotborough would attend the hastily arranged meeting. What a surprise! From the gloom and despondency that descended on this household after Maureen's, Sue and Allan's attendance of Cllr. Ken Sanderson's Forum Meeting on the Friday prior to the meeting, the sun well and truly shone through on Wednesday night. What hope and inspiration to fight on that gave everyone who attended. It was just the fillip we all needed!

The Meeting received an excellent Press. The Barnsley Chronicle managed to print a report and add a photograph on the front page of their Dearne Edition last Friday. Also, last Friday's edition of the Rotherham Advertiser carried a two page spread along with photographs of those assembled. This morning whilst tuning into Dearne FM radio station I had only just mentioned to Maureen (my wife) that perhaps we should consider advertising our campaign on local radio when we listened to a very positive news item broadcast about our Campaign Launch last Wednesday. So there you have it. The Campaign is well and truly launched!

You might want to respond to what Cllr Richard Russell,Chairman of the BDR Waste Partnership was quoted as saying in the Rotherham Advertiser - as published in last Friday's news article-

"The scheme will also be subject to the normal planning permission process before it could go go ahead, which would include public consultation and a traffic impact study. All the issues raised by local residents would be carefully considered as part of the planning process.

"There will be a number of benefits to local residents. Between 200 and 300 jobs will be created during the construction phase, with between 30 and 80 permanent jobs, many of them filled by local people.

"The facility will have a visitor centre which could be available for community use by local people.

"We are making big efforts to keep people informed what is happening. We've launched a website www.bdronline.co.uk which is regularly updated with developments and we have a dedicated postal and email address for anyone with concerns to get in touch with us."

I have a few points (listed below) that I would like clarification of.

You may wish to respond to these comments by either writing to the Rotherham Advertiser, or to Cllr Russell (contact details below).

E-mail: editor@rotherhamadvertiser.net OR doug.melloy@garnett-dickinson.co.uk

Post: Editor's Postbag, Rotherham Advertiser, Brooksfield Way, Manvers, Wath-upon-Dearne, Rotherham, S63 5DL

Telephone: 01709 768000

Please note: Letters, should be no more than 300 words long (!!!), and are subject to editing. Only letters with name and full address of the writer AND daytime telephone number will be considered for publication. Preference will be given to letters where the name and address are published.

If you wish to seek further clarification on Cllr Russell's views, his contact details (as posted on Rotherham MBC's website) are:

Councillor Richard S Russell, (Labour), 20 OakLea Avenue, Wath-upon-Dearne, Rotherham, S63 6LU

E-mail: richard.russell@rotherham.gov.uk

Telephone/Fax: 01709 872557

Councillor Richard Russell has been a member of the Council since 1992 and is currently Cabinet Member for Streetpride and a member of the Planning Board

You might care to question Cllr Russell (Rotherham MBC), as Chair of the BDR Partnership, about his "making big efforts to keep people informed what is happening".

For instance, why weren't all his Wath constituents kept informed about what the Partnership (he chairs) has been planning for Manvers over the past year and, particularly, recently? His constituents over in Golden Smithies (along with a number of Wath residents) have told me that they have NOT received any information as to what he and the Partnership have proposed for the Bolton Road site at Manvers.

According to Barnsley MBC Cllr May Noble in her letter to me dated 19 August 2009 ...

"It might be useful for you to know that more than 1,300 letters of invitation to the consultation event in Wath (15 July, 2009) were sent out by three local authorities. It was also published in the local media and community groups were contacted."

Did you receive notification by post? Did you see the publication this consultation was advertised in? Do you receive/take the local Press? Did the Community Group you belong to, receive information? Are you a member of a community group? Were you informed? Were your neighbours informed?

1,300 letters? Sent by the three Authorities? I've just checked Rotherham MBC website and, according to their "Key Statistics for Wath", I noted the following key statistics:

Wath - Neighbourhood Statistics: Housing - All Properties (2005)

- Residential Properties = 858

- Residential Properties Vacant = 19

- Council Stock = 404

Total Residencies for Wath = 1265

If there are 1265 residencies in Wath, how many other residencies are there in neighbouring Bolton, Thurnscoe, Wath, Swinton, Harlington, Adwick,Mexborough, High Melton, Barnburgh, and Sprotborough? How many residencies did these Local Authority letters reach? If there are 1265 residencies in Wath, how many of them were informed by letter about the Manvers Re-cycling Plan? Perhaps the 1300 letters were distributed to residents in all three authorities in a lottery-style? Perhaps only certain communities will be affected by the plan for Bolton Road, Manvers? If so, what criteria are each of the three Authorities applying? A "scatter gun" approach?

A "smoke and mirrors" approach?

To what degree will "All the issues raised by local residents would be carefully considered as part of the planning process" and WHEN, WHERE and HOW MANY local residents BE INFORMED?

"The scheme will also be subject to the normal planning permission process before it could go go ahead, which would include public consultation and a traffic impact study. All the issues raised by local residents would be carefully considered as part of the planning process." Do I understand correctly that BDR are arranging for plans (for what BDR is proposing for the Mnvers site) to be taken down to London within the next fortnight for submission to the Minister before the formal planning permission process has been formally carried out?

If you manage to find out, I'd be only too happy to hear. I'm sure the Editors of our local Press would also like to hear. You can now copy and paste all the e-mail addresses of your felow campaigners from the address window of this e-mail and share any any news you receive from now on.

On this last note, it may interest you to know that our felow campaigner, Mick Reilly of Adwick has taken out valuable time out from decorating to design our very own website.I am sure that you'll join me in saluting Mick for his superb effort and for this very kind gesture. More on the website very soon.

Remember, the next full meeting will be held on Wednesday 30 September, The Angel, Bolton-upon-Dearne @ 19:30.

The Committee will be meeting on Wednesday 2 September so, if you have any issues, or points for the Committee members' discussion, please forward them on. We'll be hoping to elect Committee Members into specific roles at the next meeting.

Keep up the campaigning - enlist your family, friends and neighbours. Complete the Comment Forms - its not too late for their submission.

By the way, a family member informs me that someone was taking a census of people entering and leaving the Country Park (Dearne Road) last Sunday. Could it be that Rotherham MBC are gathering eveidence of the Public's usage of the Park to present at Ministerial level along with their Planning submission? Just a thought!

All for now.

Yours fraternally,

Mick Marsden
www.notinmanvers.co.uk