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[dizzy]

This is the 3rd time i have tried to post!!its my one finger typing !!then somehow insread of post its vanished!I was at the meeting,the speakers from the floor were very informative and had done quite a lot of research ,It was made clear that the fly ash is harmful and with the wind wouldspread over quite an area.Also the amount ofCO2 coming off would be unacceptable so would ultimately cost us.The whole set up is so expensive that the plant would have to run14/7 so the amount of heavy lorries going round the roundabout would cause a high noise problem to the housing in that area.It seems very strange that they would pull down the marvellous county library,resite one of the schools but leave the special needs school in place!!the health risks are unacceptable!!
I understand the only reason barnfield was chosen over the oyher sites is that the county owns it!!!
I feel very strongly thatif an incinerater is the right way to go,it should not be sited anywhere near any housing,if neccessary use green belt land  if nowhere else suitable can be identified,to ensure there is no  risk to peoples health and quality of living.It is not a case of not in my back yard it shouldnt be in anyones back yard.
It was noticable that no conservativecanditates turned up!!it was meant to be Action for Hatfield with all parties pulling to gether!!It was good to see John Dean there and to learn our local council are against it,I hope he fed back to county the strong feelings of the meeting.Now i will press post and keep my fingers crossed!!!

[Mighty Hatfield]

Many thanks for your correspondence to Grant regarding this important issue.

First of all Grant wants to let you know that he shares your concerns about this proposal and has joined local residents in calling on the County Council to put the local community first when considering this plan.

It is his understanding that this is not a conventional incinerator pumping out smoke (as in the old days), but that instead it creates energy from the waste in a covered environment. He has been told that there are no health risks attached to the process, but he is seeking expert advice on this very point and will keep the community briefed on his discussions via the Welwyn Hatfield Forum and through the local press.

Grant is however very worried about the other issue of traffic, disruption, congestion and general road safety. The roundabout at the junction of Southway, Travellers Lane, Millwards and New Barnfield is already incredibly busy with Tesco lorries and the idea of dramatically increasing vehicle movements presents a serious problem.

Grant has therefore organised a meeting with the Leader of Hertfordshire County Council to express his deep concern and will continue to lobby for the best possible outcome for his residents.

In addition to Grant’s support, you also have the backing of Welwyn Hatfield Council, as well as Stuart Pile who is your local Herts County Councillor and we are united in this battle.

Grant will endeavour to keep you posted.

Mike Harris
Parliamentary Researcher to Grant Shapps MP

Given that neither Grant nor Stuart Pile have attended any of the public meetings about the incinerator, and further to last nights meeting, can we have an update as to how Grant has got on with raising this issue with the County Council? I will message Grant now so he knows this is on here.
 
The incinerator IS being planned for New Barnfield, the technology WILL be EFW incineration (unless one of the 6 companies who specialise in EFW incineration come up with an alternative - likely?)
 
EFW incinerators ARE hazardous to the health of nearby humans (especially children), animals, and plantlife , as anyone who has heard the facts can clearly see. Furthermore, studies have shown they can impact on local property values by as much as 10% (if money motivates you more than your health!) 
 
We dont want an incinerator in South Hatfield.
 
We dont want an incinerator full stop.
 
The County Council must be made to re-think its current course of action because the people do not want Hatfield, or any other area to be turned into a flaming dustbin. 

[finely tuned]

Grant has asked that County put us first when considering this plan? This implies by that very statement that county do not consider the impact that such a project would have on the local community.
Therefore we can also deduce where in the pecking order the residents of Hatfield are, sadly this would seem to be below the industrial importance of waste.
To put it more simply, Rubbish is of more importance than Human Health!

ft

[dizzy]

I was at the meeting,which was very informative,Although the 2 people from the County Council kept saying it is not a done deal,my gut feeling that it is!!!I asked if there are any european directives of how far away from housing an incinerator should be placed ,and it appears that there is no such directive.I also got told some incinerators are much nearer to housig than this proposed one!!Has any one got any contacts in Edmonton to find out what problems local residents have had there i believe its on the angel road,near the river on google it looks a huge spreadout structure.
When it got mentioned by somebody that John Deane and the local council were against it there appeared to be a joke made that as they couldnt do any thing about it it was easy to side with the
people who apposed  the scheme!!!
 
It appears regardless of any thing else the county library will be moved,and some thing would go on that site,To my mind it would be better to be housing.
There were a lot of figures given out and of course like all figures they can be differently interpreted,but it did appear that there would be a high rate of CO2 thay eventually we would eventually get charged for. get charged for!!,plus there are some possible health issues with the other emissions.
I am one of the ones affected by the extra trffic that would be created on the large round a bout that gives access to Tescos etc,I do not see how they can say heavy waste lorries going all day ,and possibly all night,would not have an impct on our lives!!The noise, the exhaust fumes,plus just overloading southway and the road from the south in front of the hotel as the waste lorries would have to come down from the welham green exit from hatfield tunnel,perhaps the powers that be ought to move to this area!!!Thet would feel differently then!There must be a more suitable piece of green belt land that could be bought with the hefty sum that the goverment are going to hand over with main acess that wouldnt hurt anybody.
As regards the special needs school.I can understand all the parents getting incensed,Perhaps it needs the national papers to be made aware of just how caring our county is to disadvantaged  children.
Where was Stuart Pile????where was Grant????This is not a political rantI just feel that although both have given lip sevice! when the chips are down where are they??
There was a printed hand out available entitled The Future of Hertfordshires Waste April 2009 inside was a time scale.by sept no of bidders will be narrowed down to 3 or 4 a gain asked to submit more detailed plans, and then after final tenders are in in 2010,planning process etc construction would start in 2012-2015,there still has to be a transfer site  needed in the east of the county,in orfer to minimize the transfer ofdust carts to and from the new facility.An envirementalimpact assessment will take up to a year to complete,it appears a geological assessment was done in may!!on a site that may not be used!!!!

[finely tuned]

Local issues like this is what really gets me worked up. What is unfolding right before our very eyes is more evidence that these huge decisions are taken with no thought to the families it affects.
Furthermore these decisions seem to be made before any official paperwork is put in place, it wouldn't surprise me to find out later down the line that the contractor has already chosen but they are just going through the motions.
How can this happen? The answer is simple really we get lied to on a continuous basis.

Hatfield Town Centre will go ahead and is on time was the very sentence John Dean was shouting 14 months ago even though he already knew what he was saying was a complete lie because the funding had fallen through!

Stanborough Trees felled because the council wanted to do it even though there was reports inplace against the idea and the company chosen to do the work wasn't independant!

Lies, Lies and yet more Lies!!!

Now we have County Lies to contend with, where does it stop?

Hatfield is my home and it is being systematically destroyed by Council authorities. Please anyone who lives in WGC don't think that because it's happening here it wont affect you because the truth is that this plan will spread enough CO2 around for you to have your share as well.

The idea of siting this incinerator here should never have been an option, only the most cold hearted and uncaring individual would have suggested it. That person should be sacked on the spot because they quite clearly are not representing the area to the best of their abilities or at least our expectation of them.

ft

[MikeHobday]

The idea of siting this incinerator here should never have been an option, only the most cold hearted and uncaring individual would have suggested it. That person should be sacked on the spot because they quite clearly are not representing the area to the best of their abilities or at least our expectation of them.

ft

I agree, but let's remember that Tory County Councillor Stuart Pile was re-elected on June 4. We have to raise awareness of how badly Hatfield is treated - and demonstrate that there is an alternative.

[dizzy]

It is now over a week since the envirement meeting,and still no word from Grant or stuart Pile!!!!Please give us the courtesy of letting us know how you stand on this very emotive subject.It is important to the community as it affects us all in many ways.It appears the company put in charge of looking at the various propasals is only  interested in incineraters that is their own area of expertise,so that side is cut and dried alreadyPlease Grant do let us know if you have gone back on helping get this mooved away from Barnfield so far it doesnt appear this is on your list of  supporting  local issues.

[finely tuned]

I had a quick look at what information is available on these energy from waste plants on the net this afternoon and the amount out there to read is staggering.


The North London Waste authority currently has the largest EFW plant in the UK this will be superseeded by one in Runcorn. The plant in Edmonton handles the waste from 7 of the London boroughs, this waste produces enough electricity to supply 24,000 homes and the remaining excess electricity it produces runs the plant.

When you consider that you get more than 24,000 homes in a single London Borough it doesn't seem all that good.

The site is over 3.5 Ha and size obviously doesn't matter as "the plant only manages to recycle 16.88% of all materials." The target for 2007-2008 was just 24%

http://www.capitalwastefacts.com/LondonFacts/NewAuthorityFactFiles/NorthLondonWasteAuthority/tabid/141/Default.aspx


The other page i came across really opened my eyes. It's worth every reader of this forum looking at.
Heres a taster of the page.

'Every year the Edmonton smokestack spews out 800 tonnes of acid gases and 50 kilos of arsenic.’

And they also compare Edmonton London to Edmonton Canada. 

"In Edmonton, Canada, the town recycles over 50% of its rubbish and is aiming to increase that to 70%"

http://technology.open.ac.uk/eeru/natta/renewonline/rol29a/9.html



Some truely shocking facts.

ft

[MikeHobday]

It is now over a week since the envirement meeting,and still no word from Grant or stuart Pile!!!!Please give us the courtesy of letting us know how you stand on this very emotive subject.It is important to the community as it affects us all in many ways.

It seems pretty clear what Hatfield South Tory Councillor Stuart Pile believes - check the county council cabinet minutes at
http://www.hertsdirect.org/yrccouncil/civic_calendar/archive/Cabinet_64/081020%20cabinet%20minutes.doc and
http://www.hertsdirect.org/yrccouncil/civic_calendar/archive/Cabinet_87/090616%20cabinet%20minutes.doc
and note the total absence of any objection from him - or from Richard Smith, Tory County Councillor for Welwyn.
Mike

[shapps]

Hi all,

As you may know my concern over the New Barnfield site being used for Energy from Waste stretches back to Spring 2008 when I sent this press release to the local media after I had met with nearby residents to assess the project.

Background

It seems to me that whilst energy from waste might be a good idea, this is the wrong location to build such a plant, not least because there are two schools and a library there already. Under this proposal the waste from across the County would end up being driven along Southway very nearby residential properties on the roundabout with Travellers Lane and Millwards. This is in fact already a busy roundabout because Tesco has a distribution depot right there and you can imagine how it would be if this was added to with more lorries pitching up approximately once every 5 minutes. I've taken this short video to give a taster.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/OWC9DryHChE&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0&amp;fs=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/OWC9DryHChE&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0&amp;fs=1</a>

The Campaign

All the parties locally are against this plan and I've just launched this campaign website to gather support, provide facts about both the process of energy from waste and the campaign and to galvanise support from across the affected community in both South Hatfield and Welham Green.

Please add your name to the petition by clicking here.

Grant.
Save New Barnfield campaign.

[Mighty Hatfield]

I’m very confused Grant, 'New Barnfield' is actually the name of the group of buildings that serves as a county council 'training facility'  - including libraries and other educational facilities. 'Southfield School' is the special needs school adjacent to the site.

I’m all for saving the library, infact I feel it’s a crucial part of a double hammer blow to remove all the educational services (save for the special needs school) and then to lump in an incinerator.

I may be missing the point, but your campaign does not specifically mention 'saving' the library and the associated services.

Does it aim to? If so, brilliant - lets all work together in persuading the Conservative County Councils Cabinet to reverse their decision - (and i think both you and the signatories on your position so far, aka the elected conservative party of welwyn and hatfield would have much greater clout with your fellow pary members than anyone else) - to relocate all of these services, at the same meeting they decided the site was a 'preferred' site for their 'preferred' technology of waste incineration.
 
from http://www.hertsdirect.org/yrccouncil/civic_calendar/archive/Cabinet_64/081020%20cabinet%20minutes.doc
 

 
4.         VACATION OF SITE OF NEW BARNFIELD, HATFIELD

            Decision

1.    That the following projects be initiated:

a)    Relocation of the Central Resource Library, the Schools Library Service, Library Service administration accommodation, Mobile Library Service,  Technical Support Services and Distribution to suitable alternative accommodation, and
b)    Relocation of the Key Stage 3 part of Park Education Support Centre to suitable alternative accommodation.

2.    That further reports be brought to Cabinet concerning those projects, either within annual business cycle processes or as and when required, to enable the vacation of the site of New Barnfield and having regard to the progress of the Waste Procurement Project.
 

[shapps]

Sure, the petition directly mentions the schools (there are in fact two schools there) as well as the library.

If you like, I'd be happy to add your name to those publicly supporting the campaign on the website.

[Mighty Hatfield]

Sure, the petition directly mentions the schools (there are in fact two schools there) as well as the library.

If you like, I'd be happy to add your name to those publicly supporting the campaign on the website.

Excellent, meant to say, hope that didnt sound negative, the more pressure thats ploughed into the fight the better.
 
Please do! 

[dizzy]

I am pleased to see Grant has  come forward to join the campaign.I gather the library is going to be mooved to WGC anyway ,that i got from some one who used to work there,and that if not the incinerater it would be housing,which to my mind is preferable,I must admit I am very pessamistic about the outcome after attending the meeting when 2 members of the county council spoke.but never say die!!

[sunnyjim]

... I gather the library is going to be mooved to WGC anyway ,that i got from some one who used to work there ..."

Is that true?  Surely WGC has already got a reference library. 

If ours is to be torn down, why on earth not relocate it in Hatfield Town Centre?  Any fool (even our councillors) must surely see that Hatfield Town Centre (which they’ve spent years letting go to rack and ruin) desperately needs to attract more people.  The reference library at New Barnfield is truly excellent (great staff, free computers, fantastic book selection, and sheet music).   If councillors intend to tear it down, then moving it into Hatfield Town Centre would at least help soften the blow.  Moving it to the next town down the road would be a truly outrageous act of vandalism.