Pinkham Wood in the snow

From Bidesh Sarkar Chair, Pinkham Way Alliance

As the holidays approach, there’s some recent news that everyone should know about. It looks to be positive for our campaign (Merry Christmas...  ), although still very far from decisive.

1. The current North London Waste Plan (NLWP) has been scrapped
2. The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) have postponed their decision on who will build the waste plant at Pinkham Way until 2013

We'll be making every effort to take advantage of these delays, and asking you to get involved where necessary, so please keep as up to date as you can. You can find more detail below.

Although there are other factors hampering these plans, our increasingly wide community action is undoubtedly key. If you’ve been involved in any way at all then successes in 2012 are partly down to you.

Thank you very much indeed - your support is vital and inspiring. Without it, there would be no way of sustaining this community-wide campaign.

Although it would be nice to think otherwise, there will be plenty to keep us all busy in the new year.

1. NORTH LONDON WASTE PLAN... VERSION 2

Over five years in the making, the NLWP was made by the seven north London councils to set  the planning guidelines for managing their waste for the next 15 years. They will now start drafting it again, from January, with 2015 a provisional date for adopting it.

We had many criticisms of the old plan - not least, the extremely dubious way the Pinkham Way site is selected. As it’s rewritten, the stakeholders may try to select the site again; we'll have to watch them closely, and make our case against this right from the start.

2. NORTH LONDON WASTE AUTHORITY PUSH ON REGARDLESS
 
The NLWP had been faltering for a few months prior to its being scrapped. Despite this, the waste authority’s line has been that their multi-billion pound procurement to deal with waste in north London for the next 30 to 40 years will continue regardless.

So, despite it being the NLWP that contains some of the waste forecasts that supposedly justify the need for a huge waste plant at all, and that selects Pinkham Way as supposedly suitable, the NLWA claim it's acceptable for them to carry on without it.

It's not hard to see why they don't want these out of date forecasts and a laughable site selection to be subject to the complete and independent scrutiny of a planning inspector. We must therefore assume that they'll do everything they can to avoid waiting for a new NLWP and continue with their plans next year.

However, their big decision to select a contractor to put these plans – including building the huge waste plant at Pinkham Way – into action has been postponed. It should have happened in early December.

Usefully for us, the deadline for contractors to bid on building the plant is now March next year. The NLWA won't select a winning bidder until some time after this.

For the latest official statement from the North London Waste Plan, visit www.nlwp.net.

For a statement from the North London Waste Authority about their delayed procurment, visit the NLWA website.

You can follow us on Twitter, join the Facebook Group, and make a donation here.

Kind regards,
 
Bidesh Sarkar
Chair
Pinkham Way Alliance