An Incinerator or a Windmill - I know which I prefer!

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Richard Gillard

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Sep 25, 2011, 9:58:50 PM9/25/11

to Michael Hilton, David Maxwell, Sheila Holderness, Heather Mitchell, Tony Mitchell, Hazel Mitchell, Cynthia Bagchi, Cynthia Keenan, Shane M. Hughes, Sue Mitchell, Keeley Knowles, Bedfordshire on Sunday, Transition Bedford

Dear Michael

Following on from my e-mail of 24 September 2011, which is copied out in full below, I am pleased to report that although my letter in answer to Tony Hare's letter was not published in this week's issue of the Bedfordshore on Sunday newspaper, two other letters were. These were from Councillor Charles Royden and from my Quaker friend Mr. David Maxwell. I am sending you copies of both of these letters, below, so you may keep track of this ongoing saga.

This weeks edition of the newspaper also reported a plan for a Wind Turbine in the same area as that for which the Covanta incinerator was mooted. The report appeared under the heading,

Landfill site may be home to huge wind turbine

I intend to write in support of that development, in the hope I may indicate that, while I am opposed to the plans for the Covanta incinerator, I am not some reactionary NIMBY who is opposed to each and every proposed development in the area.

For your further information, here is a link to the letters page on which the following two letters appear:

http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/Letters/Leisure-centre-closure-is-unjustifiable-23092011.htm

The article concerning the proposed wind turbine can be found at the following address:

http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/News/Landfill-site-may-be-home-to-huge-wind-turbine-23092011.htm

The full text of the letters to which I refer in this week's edition of Bedfordshire on Sunday can be found below.

Wamest Regards

Richard

The text of Cllr Charles Royden's and David Maxwell's letters are as follows:

Good enough for Queen

Sir - May I put the minds of your readers at rest regarding the value of energy produced by the hydropower which is being built in Bedford.

It will generate £32,000 of electricity each year not £16,000 as stated in your letters page last week. The figures provided to your readers last week also failed to take into account any rise in electricity prices over the coming years, which are widely forecast.

In addition, of course, the scheme will be creating clean, renewable energy year after year, protecting the environment by utilising the power of the river.

Your readers may be pleased to know that a similar scheme is now being built by the Queen on the River Thames at Windsor using the same Archimedes screws as will be used in Bedford.

Cllr Charles Royden St Mark’s Vicarage, Calder Rise, Bedford

Specious comparison

Sir - Mr Hare compares the Covanta incinerator (with ‘its USA problems’) to the Ford T car, and compares Covanta today to a McLaren car ‘to which we all aspire’.

Do we? This comparison is a verbal trick to distance Covanta’s past problems, and not a true comparison.

The Ford T was invented ages ago. Covanta’s USA problems (being fined for pollution) are recent, and still cause for concern.

Look up ‘Covanta Dublin’ on Google and read about on-going ‘problems’ nearer home. Any views on these, Mr Hare? Covanta is putting in bids all over the UK. Where met with indifference, it will succeed. The possibility that depresses me most is that if Marston Vale gets a giant incinerator it will need continuous feeding to be profitable for Covanta’s investors, so Covanta will truck in waste from far and wide, even giving cheap deals to other counties to keep it going.

So which counties will have the cleaner air? It is not silly (as you said) to insist that the Vale air will be cleaner without an incinerator Mr Hare.

DC Maxwell Chaucer Rd, Bedford

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	My Letter to Bedfordshire on Sunday
Date:	Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:14:47 +0100
From:	Richard Gillard <richardg...@btinternet.com>
To:	Michael Hilton <m...@compuserve.com>

Dear Michael

I should find out on Sunday whether my letter to Bedfordshire on Sunday, written last Sunday, will be published. In the meantime, I have dug out the letter it was in reply to. This is copied out in full below.

Best Wishes

Richard

Hydroproject cost too high

Sir - Like Jon Gambold (BoS Letters September 11) I am hugely concerned at the cost effectiveness of the proposed Ouse hydroproject.

If the overall cost of £850k is right and the scheme can only provide power for 31 homes, we would be £500k better off fitting solar panels to those 31 homes and they could supply power back to the grid. But wait – why are we paying for such an inefficient scheme unless it is to immortalise someone? The continual sniping at the Covanta project by the likes of Mr Maxwell is becoming a bit old hat.

Relying on the old USA problems is like comparing a Model T Ford with a Maclaren, they both do the same thing but one is today’s European state of the art to which we all aspire.

The silly comment that vale air is cleaner without the brickworks ignores the massive contamination caused by the A421 traffic, and car ownership, that will simply increase exponentially.

Which waste experts you listen to depends on what you want to hear [especially if you are a green] or who is paying their wages. The experts that matter are independent accountants, or other councils that have undertaken waste disposal value analysis, and who all agree that currently MBT [composting etc] is 40 per cent more expensive than incineration over the same period.

We are all responsible for the rubbish so we must be responsible for reducing it and disposing of it.

Knocking well founded safe engineering for either political or misguided reasoning will simply bring about greater costs which will screw us all.

Given in any event taxpayers will pick up the bill, we must beware of non engineers in chains and robes bearing gifts.