ON TUESDAY 30 September, Residents Against Pollution (RAP) are holding a protest outside Waltham Forest town hall against incinerators and other polluting waste facilities being built around Lea Valley, north east London, near to working-class residents.
The North London Waste Plan (NLWP) has proposed six main new waste disposal sites, four of which are along Lea Valley including two in Waltham Forest. Government policy is to encourage incinerators to reduce landfill, calling it ‘energy from waste’ to appear environmentally friendly.
Despite the NLWP ‘noting’ local opposition to incineration, it has said that incinerators could be built. Also, North London Joint Waste Strategy – separate from the NLWP – has proposed the expansion of an incinerator in Edmonton.
Few people in Waltham Forest know about these plans – unless they have been told by RAP. Far more people have attended RAP meetings than the ‘consultation’ NLWP meetings earlier this year.
Now local RAP campaigners, including Socialist Party members, are leafleting and petitioning streets near to the proposed Blackhorse Lane site as well as the tube station and college to get as many people to the town hall protest as possible.
Higher rates of cancer, infant mortality and respiratory problems have been recorded near to incinerators. There is a safer alternative – over 90% of waste could be recycled, but that would need democratic public planning and control rather than the current shortcuts of private profit-hungry waste contractors.
