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Leeds' green hopes up in flames
I got some exciting mail from Leeds City council today. They are going to recycle much of my rubbish in a giant incinerator either at Knostrop sewage works or at the old market at Cross Green.
For strange reasons I don't quite follow, they are going to sort this rubbish first at Evanston Avenue in Kirkstall, before giant trucks shift it across the city along the East Leeds Link Road to be burned.
Now I once lived near a rubbish incinerator operated by Rochdale Council. Just like Leeds, they said their clever use of technology meant it would never break down and, in the unlikely event it did, it would shut down to avoid inconvenience to neighbours.
In fact, one day it went badly wrong and dumped tons of soot across thousands of people's washing. The smell was atrocious and the greasy soot took weeks to clean up.
Maybe Leeds is buying a cleverer machine, a perfect device that never will go wrong and will shut itself down so quickly if it does that no one will be inconvenienced.
I stand ready to be amazed. As a former industrial chemist I keep fairly aware of developments in that field and know of no such technology.
Speaking of chemistry, I am heartened by the faith Leeds City Council has in the knowledge and skill of its citizens.
They accept only polythene terepthalate, high and low density polythene for re-cycling. Householders should not put Poly Vinyl Chloride (even if plasticised), polypropylene, polystyrene (again even if plasticised), melamine or other polymers into the green bin.
I do wonder though, how older householders are meant to know which is which. The only indication on most packaging is a tiny triangle with a number in the middle no larger than the print in this paper. Unlike the print here, the number on packaging is exactly the same colour as its background. Most other local authorities accept all polymers and sort these out at the depot, but not Leeds.
We really need to rethink our waste strategy. Our current council may talk the green talk, but they walk a grey brown sludgy walk.
It is way beyond time we got our act in order, or people will lose faith in the green agenda.
Stephen Rennie, Morris Lane, Leeds
I am not sure what Coun Monaghan's point was in saying the proposed Evanston Avenue Waste Transfer Site would not open until 2016, is he planning on leaving before then?
This project is scheduled to run until at least 2035, for some residents that will mean the rest of their lives.
Residents are not concerned who was responsible for building the existing waste transfer station back in the 1970s, the landscape was very different in the area, the transfer station was in the shadow of a power station and adjacent to light industry.
Now the area is one of residential, retail and leisure, with a nature reserve, shops, cinema, restaurants, golf course and Kirkstall Valley Park. The section of the Leeds Liverpool Canal in this area has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and wildlife including otters are returning to the River Aire which runs adjacent to the site.
The council has provided a couple of modern reference sites to look at in Shropshire and Barnsley, however these are more reasonably placed with better transport infrastructure and no immediate residential neighbours.
We have located our own modern reference site in the residential area of Round Hill in Brighton and Hove, operated by one of the shortlisted bidders for the Leeds contract.
This is an area more akin to the Evanston Avenue site, the residents of Round Hill appear to be far from happy with its operation, despite the assurances they were given.
It needs a proper look at what is right for the long term.
The Council appears to be trying to avoid a comprehensive environment assessment by choosing this site. It is clinging on to environmental permits originally granted a generation or two ago, surely a site that has not been fit for purpose for the capacity permitted by those permits since 2002.
A council report in 2005 said Kirkstall Road is already at capacity and will not be able to accommodate currently known developments.
At this time the Evanston Avenue site no was longer running at anywhere near its capacity and was scheduled to be closed in 2004.
The suggestion that traffic movements would be limited to out-of-peak periods leaves at most a six-hour window on weekdays and anyone living near or using Kirkstall Road at a weekend knows it verges on gridlock for most of the time. The phase 'cloud cuckoo land' springs to mind.
Steve Harris, Woodside View, Leeds
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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