20th May 2015 - Tribunal postponed - and Javelin Park fails on Porritt's 8 principles
Freedom of information Tribunal postponed
The Tribunal to decide Gloucestershire County Council's appeal against the Information Commissioner's Office Decision Notice (which required disclosure of the full incinerator contract) has been postponed due to the sheer quantity of information submitted byGCC to the court for consideration.
Postponement was requested by the Information Commissioner's Office, who did not wish to risk the case being "part heard" in only 2 days. The new extended dates for the hearing are 27-30 September inclusive.
Transparency - or lack of it - remains a key issue in the whole saga, as renowned environmentalist and writer Jonathon Porritt made clear at the recent Talking Rubbish seminar at Gloucestershire University.
Jonathon Porritt's 8 principles of good policy-making - Javelin Park fails on all counts
Jonathon Porritt's opening speech at the seminar laid out, blow by blow, all the reasons why Javelin Park is a perfect example of bad policy-making in action. You can watch his brilliant talk here: https://youtu.be/630w6iw7w5M
Porritt set out 8 principles on which resource management policy-making should be based in a sustainable context, and these are:
- transparency
- value for money
- community engagement
- efficiency in resource use
- avoiding infrastructure lock-in
- moving towards a circular economy
- future-proofing
- creating an ultra-low carbon future
Javelin Park runs counter to every single one of these principles, and the sooner the County Council and indeed Urbaser Balfour Beatty realise this, the sooner good taxpayers' money can be prevented from being thrown after bad.
The seminar also featured Mike Brown, MD of waste consultancy Eunomia, who made it clear that by the time Javelin Park is built (if it goes ahead), there will already be more incineration capacity in the UK than there is waste to process, creating conditions for an economic meltdown in the sector.
Feel free to send the link and/or information above to your County Councillors, who could do with it, as most did not attend the seminar despite receiving personal invitations. [1] To email your County Councillor, go to writetothem.com.
Currently, UBB expect to begin construction sometime in August. Much could happen between now and then. We know there are plenty of local folk who would be prepared to camp out at Javelin Park and halt progress by any peaceful means possible. [2]
But wouldn't it be great if they didn't have to? (I for one am a terrible camper. I hate sleeping in tents.) Wouldn't it be better if everyone concerned just woke up and started looking at the options sensibly while there's still time? [3]
NOTES
[1] Sarah Lunnon and Steve Lydon were there, to their credit
[2] Last minute alert! a training day is happening this Saturday 21st May in Stroud, see https://www.facebook.com/events/211147152603364/