Edmonton incinerator

• DESPITE Camden Council declaring a climate emergency and enshrining “appropriate” action into its constitution, the vast gap between words and any actuality remains.

The borough remains visibly awash with rubbish and its recycling rate hasn’t moved from 30 per cent for years.

This same rubbish is being sent to Edmonton where the huge lasting damage done to air quality by incineration no longer features on any of Camden’s environmental calculations.

Camden councillors and officers are supporting a rebuild and hugely and unnecessarily expanded capacity of the incinerator. Even Iain Duncan Smith has asked why the costings have increased from £650million to £1.2billion and been refused an answer.

However this expanded capacity, they argue, will mean “waste” from elsewhere can be incinerated at Edmonton and reduce costs for Camden residents. The further increased and deadly nano particulate matter hasn’t factored into their “equations”.

The incinerator itself is just 8.3 miles from Camden Town. Is there a link between Camden’s lack of motivation to act on Veolia’s continued ineptitude, push for a dramatic increase in recycling, and this new project in Edmonton?

On December 1 Georgia Elliot-Smith is going to the High Court to challenge rules on the governance of the untaxed operations of North London Waste Authority and the incinerator. Here in Camden we should all be wishing her luck.

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