FOLLOWING the article “Herefordshire Council – cabinet did not get the detail of £90m incinerator plan” (herefordtimes.com, September 24), I would like to inform readers that Worcestershire County Council have already stated that the projected total costs of waste disposal including the incinerator will top £1.6 billion.
This declaration followed the council leader stating “I don’t care how much the incinerator costs, I just want it!”
Worcestershire CC were also informed that Wakefield Council have sensibly rejected incineration and are able to deal with a greater amount of waste over the same period for less than half that cost.
Other councils have also followed alternative routes, stating that the cost of incinerating waste is far too expensive.
Now we have to ask ourselves why Worcester-shire are blankly refusing to even consider an option that offers half the cost to the taxpayer. Is it because they don’t care about the massive cuts that will have to be made to key services just to fund this (impacting on families and the vulnerable) or is it because the contractor is leading them along the most profitable route?
And let’s not forget the fact that the EU plan to bring in a carbon tax so the incinerator would then cost even more than the obscene figure that is currently projected.
It is such a shame that Herefordshire Council appears to be ‘handcuffed to an idiot’ in this contract as if it were able to separate itself from Worcestershire it could then choose cleaner, more sustainable and far more cost effective methods of managing its diminishing resources.
Unfortunately, though, Hereford’s main party is happily running alongside their Worcestershire colleagues blindfolded. When they trip and fall into a big black hole, sadly they will drag the taxpayers down with them.
ALAN JONES Hartlebury, Worcestershire
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