Lib Dems do not back incinerators

3:26pm Thursday 13th November 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

I REALLY have to address just a few of the inaccuracies contained in K Dransfield’s letter (World, October 22) .

Firstly, the joint party statement was published by World on February 20, 2008, eight months ago – hardly the “few weeks ago” quoted by K Dransfield.

Secondly, K Dransfield stated: “Across the UK Lib Dem councils are repeatedly favouring energy from waste plants, including Sheffield, Cornwall and other places.”

What tosh! Sheffield’s Bernard Road incinerator was planned and operational during a 30-year Labour council rule.

It was so bad that that council spent £28 million in an attempt to bring it up to standard – they failed. It was finally shut down in 2001, during a three-year period of Lib Dem control.

The new incinerator was brought into being during a period of no overall control.

In Cornwall, the planning application for an incinerator has yet to be decided. Most of the parish and town councils have lodged objections. All of the district councils are under no overall control.

Restormel district council is the only district council to object in a unanimous vote, there is not one Labour councillor and the Lib Dems are the largest party.

Cornwall’s MPs are all Lib Dem. They are all pressing for a public inquiry with Matthew Taylor MP actively spearheading that campaign. Cornwall council is Lib Dem controlled.

Why do the Cornish favour Liberal Democracy? Could it have anything to do with the Lib Dem ideal of decentralisation and giving government to local people?

This must strike a chord with the Cornish who, like the Welsh and Scottish, have wanted independence from Westminster long before any of us were born.

K Dransfield needs to remind him/herself that sounding off is one thing – checking a few facts before putting pen to paper is quite another.

Name and Address supplied Runcorn