14 Apr
This is the list of local Green Party candidates standing in the May 2013 Worcstershire County Council Elections:
Ombersley: Stephen Brown (please also see this SB Ombersley Press Release about Hartlebury Incinerator)
St Marys: Ronald Lee
St George’s & St Oswald’s: Louise Ryan
Bewdley: Phillip Oliver
Stourport: Angela Hartwich
St John’s: Michael Whitbread
Cookley, Wolverley, Wribbenhall: Kate Spohrer
St Chad’s: Victoria Lea
Please visit “Our Candidates” page for more information.
24 Mar
It seems the Worcester News has come out in favour of building the Hartlebury Incinerator because they seem to to think we pay too much in landfill tax at £9.8 million a year, so they conclude the answer is to burn our rubbish instead.
A little more in-depth journalism might have revealed an altogether different picture, and so the Worcester News missed the entire point in failing to ask…..why are we landfilling so much recyclable waste?
For that you need to dig deep into the contract that Worcestershire County Council has with Mercia Waste, which was so poorly negotiated by the council, it means it’s loaded in favour of the contractor meaning that in their mind, only an incinerator will bail them out of the hole of their own making to avoid sending waste to landfill and accruing all these charges. It gets better……building the incinerator will cost the council £6million (Tory estimates but this is likely to be much much more) a year more than carrying on doing what they are doing now…and they will still need to landfill rubbish if it breaks down, as it will, and landfill any toxic residue which will attract higher charges still. And with EU regulations about to change requiring councils to avoid burning waste and penalising those councils who do, what on earth is Worcestershire County Council doing?
Burning your money that’s what.
This is staggering managerial and financial incompetence. Generally when you are in a hole, the best advice is STOP DIGGING. All they are doing is playing straight into the hands of Mercia’s moneyspinning contract.
So, what do we get…rather than taking a long hard look at the cheaper, greener alternatives, based on recycling and things like anaerobic digestion which other councils do, and which costs half of what landfill coasts and a third of the cost of burning – Worcestershire County Council want Government to reduce landfill charges whilst at the same time moaning it’s now affecting the funding of other services.
Fact – they only have THEMSELVES to blame.
Fact -’we’ paid £12 million for a recycling PFI facility that has not improved its performance in 3 years and has 30,000 tonnes a year spare capacity.
Fact – landfill is expensive but alternatives like anaerobic digestion and composting cost half that of landfill.
Fact – With food waste collections and more recycling 68% of waste could be treated for a third of the cost of burning it.
Fact- had they a negotiated a better deal for taxpayers in the Mercia Waste contract, we could be getting a financial return on our recyclates waste rather than it lining the pockets of shareholders at Mercia Waste.
Finally, some other things taxpayers should be aware of:
There is a base fee of £8 million per annum in the contract. This was calculated on waste levels in 1999-2000 when recycling was 6 %. Waste has fallen dramatically since then, but the fee has not.
In addition, ‘we’ pay £5 million recycling supplement per annum, the more we recycle the more we pay. This is not the case for many other councils who are paid for their waste.
We also pay a £3 million composting supplement, so we’re now at £17 million per annum.
In Summary:
If we recycled more like other councils and were paid for this, treated food and garden waste differently, and were not tied into a poorly negotiated contract with Mercia Waste, ‘we’ the taxpayer could save many £millions. So why won’t the council do this?
That is something the Worcester News should have asked, but singularly failed to do so when they instead bought into the recycled Tory propaganda on rubbish. Well, at least, look on the bright side they do believe in some form of recycling.
15 Mar
The County Council Elections will be upon us soon (2nd May 2013), and it is the intention of Wyre Forest Green Party to stand candidates in as many of the wards in Wyre Forest for the Worcestershire County as we are able.
Our candidates will be posted on our ‘Candidates’ page here as soon as they are confirmed.
The Green Party candidates will stand on a platform of an anti-cuts agenda and oppose austerity that sees our services for the most vulnerable being targetted.
Austerity is an ideological choice made by all the main parties making the poorest and most vulnerable pay the highest price for an economic crisis not of their making – this crisis was born of reckless decision making in the Banking Sector made worse by insufficient regulation by Government.
The Green Party say:
YES to jobs, YES to a living wage, YES to fair taxation, YES to more social housing.
NO to pensioner poverty, NO to tax cuts for the rich, NO to benefit cuts, NO to Tory Bedroom tax.
It’s about time the Government chased down the tax dodgers and made them pay their fair share as that would more than make up for the level of cuts we are enduring. That and less spending on the arms trade and weapons of mass destruction. However we see public services slashed, assets being sold off, more privatisation including of the NHS in the upcoming Health & Social Care Act, and HMRC shedding thousands of jobs – the very type of jobs that can bring in the much needed revenue needed for the country that is going missing thanks to the tax dodgers.
We believe that we need to invest in people, education, local public transport, housing and green jobs – which will be a better use of the resources we have rather than allow a situation to develop where the rich get richer and the most vulnerable pay the highest price.
Vote Green – for a fairer society.
7 Feb
Over the last few weeks we have witnessed the Tories in crisis. Some of it self-inflicted, well all of it really….
Not only are people beginning to realise the Tories are a bust flush with their cuts agenda that is making our economy worse, but that the party of old that lost a succession of elections based on barmy policy agendas, right wing dogma, internal division and Europe is well and truly back despite all of Cameron’s dodgy dealings to convince us otherwise.
THE ECONOMY – What’s happening with the economy will do for them in the main. They claim the deficit is down but conveniently forget debt is up. That’s what happens when you cut cut cut. Confidence is lost, workers lose jobs, people don’t spend, business hoards cash, banks don’t lend, tax receipts go down, economy tumbles. This all ensures the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and ordinary people get duped into thinking there is no alternative.
The simple message is that the cuts are not working. We need a change of direction based on fairness, green investment, and sustainable infrastructure investment that puts local communities first. The problems won’t be solved by using the same methods that got us into trouble in the first place, despite grand airport or HS2 schemes kissing goodbye to money that would be better spent on more localised projects. While the same underlying problems exist with global capital, the banks, multinationals working for themselves instead of us, and wealth control remaining in the hands of the few, it will always be 2 steps forward, 3 steps back.
THE EU – It seems the Tories are also feeling squeezed by UKIP. Cameron has attempted to steal UKIP’s new emperor clothes by promising an undeliverable EU referendum, on changes that are never going to happen. It backfired on them and exposed once again their divisions and little Englander mentality. Our own MP has even joined a ‘special’ gang of Tory MP’s looking to redefine our relationship with Europe. Now he’s shacked up with a bunch of no hopers, true blues and UKIP rejects determined to slash the social chapter, cut workers rights and put us in the ‘pay for europe but get no say’ cheap seats. Playing to the blue gallery and gambling with our future as Hedge-Fund bankers do, and not having learned the lessons of 2008. Europe needs change to make it more accountable to us but this is not the way to do it. Ask a baby if it can get its own rattle back once it’s thrown it out of the pram…it can’t …..it will have to grow up first. A subtle message in that.
EQUALITY – Then there is the question of gay marriage raised by Cameron, which over half of his own MP’s failed to support and showing why they are an anachronism in the 21st century despite the PR spin. Closer to home, our own MP Mark Garnier had spent months saying he was relaxed about gay marriage only to come out (no pun intended) at the eleventh hour declaring that because he got some letters from angry people, he is voting against the Bill. If only getting Mark to change his mind on a whole host of other issues was so simple.
Yes, the Tories are back bless them.
LOCAL ISSUES:
Kidderminster Gallery – There has been much dismay about the county council’s intended destruction of the much loved Gallery, on the top floor of Kidderminster Library. A feat accomplished by the county council with a catalogue of fibs about its special nature, and with a total lack of meaningful engagement with the local community and artists who use it. The Friends have fought valiantly to defend it but been undone by council tactics, a council cover up, and the one man who could have helped save it, and despite his promise to the contrary, the local architect David Millis, losing his bottle and going to ground and so helping to save the council’s bacon.
Hartlebury Incinerator – More unbelievable county council decisions are afoot with their proposed Hartlebury Incinerator. They plan to spend nearly £1billion of our money burning rubbish in a PFI facility that is not needed and which is too expensive. Alongside the complete abdication of fiscal responsibility here, there is a total ignorance of the reality of the reductions in waste, the benefits of recycling and value of recyclates, upcoming EU legislation on incineration, or the fact there is over-capacity in incineration already. This, in a time of the most severe cuts in county council budgets in history. But it’s ok because a multi-national company based in Spain will make a mint.
Highways – The county cabinet today voted to increase spending on roads by £2.5million because that’s what the public want. Elsewhere, services are being slashed and burned, staff are losing their jobs, vulnerable people’s frontline services are going. People place roads second behind social care according to the Tories in their ‘constructed’ consultation. On that basis, why hasn’t there been an increase in the social care budget too? People see roads every day but not the impact of cuts in social care, until they might need them that is. The Tories know a vote winner when they see one. That’s politics at its cynical best.
Elections – We have the county council elections this year and the Green party will be announcing its Wyre Forest candidates very shortly. Let’s hope people are ready for a change and will vote Green to start putting an end to some of this nonsense coming out from County Hall Tories.
13 Dec
It would appear to casual observers that this issue has gone quiet over the last month or so.
Please be assured that Alliance members like Green Party spokesperson Stephen Brown, are continuing to work on this issue and talk to the NHS as they approach decision time on models outcoming from this preliminary part of the process. Also rest assured that the Alliance, as is Stephen, still making the case for retention of our hospital and its services in line with the agenda of the Alliance and the 13,000 signature petition in support of the Alliance aims.
We expect some news in January 2013 at the latest.
UPDATE 7th February 2013. No news as of yet but the Alliance will be meeting with the NHS 14th February 2013.
13 Dec
HWAG PRESS RELEASE:
Council to review decision on incinerator but will ‘risk’ £1.8 million on site works Worcestershire County Council have postponed a decision on whether to go ahead with a giant waste incinerator at Hartlebury as it has revealed that the cost would be taken to around £1billion; a claim made by objectors for many months.
This would mean an extra £6 million per year being taken from other council budgets. If the present contractors are unable to reduce the costs of PFI financing, the Council may ask for tenders from other companies and look at other cheaper financing options. However, despite delaying the decision on the incinerator, the Council intends to agree on Thursday (13th December) to ‘risk’ spending £1.8 million on preparing the site whatever the outcome.
Campaigners have criticised this as a shocking waste of money at a time of severe cutbacks. The site is also believed to be contaminated with methane and other gases, and could be potentially dangerous. This also raises questions about its valuation and purchase by Worcestershire
County Council, who paid in excess of £4 million, whilst having knowledge of these issues.
Taxpayers who support Herefordshire and Worcestershire Action Group have welcomed the delay but said that the opportunity now exists for a review of much cheaper, greener ways of processing the waste, and creating renewable energy. The Council’s proposals for cheaper finance for the incinerator would shave a small amount off the huge price of burning waste but it could still work out at more than 3 times the cost of cheaper options used by other councils.
Taxpayers are calling on the Council to look at better cheaper methods of dealing with waste by using outside companies to obtain better value for money. Some councils are paid for their recycled waste. Aluminium cans sell for up to £800 per tonne (pt), paper about £100pt and even broken glass is used to make fibre glass insulation. So why pay £136pt to burn it? Diverting this waste from landfill and increasing recycling could pay huge dividends. Millions of pounds could also be saved by collecting food and garden waste separately and sending it to Anaerobic Digestion (AD) or composting for around £40pt, again much cheaper that £136pt to burn.
Quite rightly, burning plastic could soon be banned and an incineration tax could replace landfill tax. Incinerator capacity is growing and so the plant could soon become uneconomical. Waste going to landfill is falling. So why do we really need an incinerator?
Spokesperson Rob Wilden, from Herefordshire & Worcestershire Action Group, said:
“ The council’s failure to run their integrated waste management project has resulted in 60 variations costing over £49 million pounds to date. How can they justify this sort of spend? It is unbelievable that the cabinet intend to press ahead with ground works costing £1.8 million whilst cutting similar amounts from the severely disabled, in addition to other services such as libraries and bus services. Both councils are
slashing over £100 million from services. No comprehensive financial risk assessment is available for the incinerator project, as was the case with the Virgin West Coast train line debacle. Sadly there is no Richard Branson here and so yet again we urge the cabinet members not to support
this disastrous proposal without knowing all the facts. It is their obligation to protect the public purse. Local authorities should not be engaging in speculative high risk commercial ventures.’
NOTE: THE HWAG CAMPAIGN IS SUPPORTED BY WYRE FOREST GREEN PARTY AND WE ENDORSE THIS PRESS RELEASE
13 Dec
Those of you following the Kidderminster Library Gallery story will not be surprised to learn that County Council planning committee yesterday voted to accept the destruction of the Gallery.
They did this by a vote of 7 to 6 and in doing so those 7 councillors ignored the relevant planning matters at stake and sacrificied the only purpose built publicly owned arts and performance space in Wyre Forest despite ‘loss of community space’ being something that should have been at the top of their agenda rather than the council’s politically motivated ‘BOLD’ programme which they ran with.
In achieving this the chairperson misdirected members on planning matters and a county employee mislead members about the purpose built nature of the Gallery. No depths are too deep to dive into to achieve their end it seems.
Destruction of cultural assetts and conversion into offices is now ‘modernisation’ according to Worcestershire Tories. Something similar happened somewhere else in the 1930′s.
