5 March 2007 - Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has written to Government Office of the South East demanding a full planning inquiry into East Sussex County Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a waste incinerator in Newhaven.

Her letter, formerly requesting the Government calls-in the decision by the Tory-led council, echoes arguments already made by scores of local campaigners and the group Defenders of the Ouse Valley (DOVE).

Dr Lucas argues the decision should be reversed as a waste incinerator would increase pollution, traffic and greenhouse gas emissions, due to the high number of local objections (over 16,000), due to the adverse impact an incinerator would have on the adjacent South Downs Area of Natural Beauty and because the planning application breaches planning guidance and the agreed local plan.

The MEP said: “An incinerator at Newhaven would have a massive impact on the local community, boosting traffic levels, pumping out toxic pollution and increasing the risk of flooding.

“It would tie Brighton and Hove and East Sussex councils into a long-term contract to burn waste rather than re-use of recycle it and it contravenes and conflicts with both the Government’s and East Sussex County Council’s own planning guidance –the decision to allow it to be built must be examined again at a full planning inquiry.

“Waste incinerators are not – as the European Parliament agreed last month – in any way a ‘green’ solution to dealing with rubbish.

Her call for an inquiry follows a decision by East Sussex County Council to grant permission for the incinerator to be built at North Quay, Newhaven, despite the well-documented environmental and health risks and more than 16,000 local letters of objection.

South-East England ’s Green Party MEP added: “We are drowning in a sea of waste and if we are to tackle it we must adopt strategies to cut the amount of waste we produce in the first place rather than the defeatist ‘predict and provide’ approach embodied in the decision to build this incinerator.

“There would simply be no need to incinerate waste at all if the Government had the commitment and courage to adopt a ‘zero waste strategy’ such as that employed successfully in Canada and parts of Australia ."

ENDS