Tories Decide Bucks Waste Should be Exported to Rookery Pit, Stewartby and Burnt in a Giant Incinerator

Conservative-run Buckinghamshire County Council has decided to build a mammoth 600,000 tonne waste incinerator near Stewartby village. The news comes just days before Bedfordshire Conservatives' plan for a 200,000 tonne rubbish burner at the same location is set to be blocked following a successful campaign by the Liberal Democrats.

Due to its huge scale, the Bucks plans will bypass the local planning process and will instead be determined remotely by the national government. Household waste from Buckinghamshire will comprise less than a quarter of the rubbish burnt on the site at Rookery Pit, with waste likely to be imported into the area from a range of locations across local roads to be burnt in the environmentally harmful incinerator. Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats, who have led the campaign against an incinerator at Rookery Pit, have pledged to fight the Conservatives' plans. Commenting, Group Leader Cllr Dave Hodgson said: "This shameful attempt by Buckinghamshire Conservatives to send over half a million tonnes of rubbish to be burnt in an environmentally harmful incinerator near Stewartby is breathtaking in its disregard for the interests of local residents and for the local and wider environment.'

"With the costs of the local Tories' plan for Bedfordshire waste to be burnt in Stewartby spiralling out of control to over a billion, we are on the verge of blocking that project once and for all and instead pursuing a more environmentally sustainable method of dealing with Bedford Borough's waste. It is therefore an extremely bitter blow for local residents in Stewartby and across Bedford Borough that Buckinghamshire Conservatives have seen fit to decide to dump their County's rubbish, along with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish from elsewhere, in the very same location to be burnt in an incinerator which is three times as big as the local Tories' flawed scheme. The Conservatives seem determined to build a giant incinerator at Rookery Pit whatever the financial or environmental cost to local residents.'

"The scale of the cynical, brazen plans of the Bucks Tories means that they will bypass the local planning process and instead be decided by the national Government. The Liberal Democrats will fight to ensure that residents' voices are heard and that this scandalous project does not go ahead. Please sign up to the campaign to stop the incinerator at www.aburningissue.org.uk"