DUMPING GROUND?

(please click on image to enlarge)

REFUSE DERIVED FUEL OR TRASH BURNING?
The Environment Agency has decided to turn Rugby into a "DUMPING GROUND" for household and commercial waste, as Cemex wins right to burn London's trash. Cemex imports waste from Holland, through the Associated British Ports, on a three years contract, because, as the Agency says in a letter 22 October:
QUOTE:

"It has become clear that the UK waste industry can't reliably produce this material to a standard that can be used to fuel cement kilns. Cemex has taken a commercial decision to obtain this material from overseas. This is a matter for them, and the AGENCY is CONTENT for this material to be imported under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste controls. The waste is shipped for "energy recovery" and agreed to on the basis that the waste has been produced to a specification and has a positive calorific value."

(The Agency is referring to RDF trials at Cemex South Ferriby and Barrington, where emissions of metals have soared, lumps of metal appeared in the clinker, stops/starts increased, "fuel" feeding mechanisms have broken down, etc as the locals have been experimented on during these "trials")

QUOTE:

"You are unhappy, it seems, that we are not incorporating the TRANSPORT IMPACTS of this operation into our assessment relating to the cement plant in Rugby. You are well aware that this cannot be done within our regulatory regime, and we have discussed this many times already."

But it is not only me, but also the 60,000 RUGBY RESIDENTS who are justifiably MORE than "UNHAPPY" with the 24/7 convoys of hundreds of juggernauts shaking our town, roads, houses to virtual collapse, and polluting our air, as caused by the Environment Agency.

LACK OF JOINED UP THINKING AND FAILURE TO CARRY OUT ANY ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Could it possibly be that the Agency ponders "Environmental impact assessment - what is that?
No we see no point in looking at the overall Environmental Impact. It does not suit our overall aim for Rugby. We like to keep all the environmental impacts as separate as possible, and that way we can keep on adding bits, bits bits, with no sum total! We are subjecting Rugby to the boiling the frog treatment! We have got away with it for years because there has been no intelligent opposition. Even is the 90,000 residents of the whole Rugby Borough came and protested we would take no notice of them. We are the Agency, and we are unaccountable, and free to use and abuse the Rugby environment as Rugby Cement sees fit."

THE AGENCY WANTS MORE PEOPLE TO DEBATE as, fresh from working with Cemex and Rugby Council, behind the backs of the Rugby residents, elected councillors, and the whole Rugby Cement Community Forum, it has now featured on Radio Rugby asking for more people to come forward to join the cement factory debate. The Agency is disappointed that more people do not appreciate the "environmental improvements" that have been made by the Agency's turning Rugby into a waste dump? The Agency's survey of April 2006 showed 70% of the people interviewed are concerned about the cement plant and its impacts on our town, loss of amenity, damage to air quality and health etc. Do we hear a round of applause for the Agency in Rugby? I think not!


The Agency letter quoted above neatly sums up the position as the Rugby residents are failed yet again by the authorities, which continue to use and abuse Rugby, its residents, its environment, its roads, its air, its health, its amenities, and its democratic rights, in its bat-and ball game with Warwickshire County Council. But Rugby residents have had enough of being kicked about by these unaccountable bullying quangos. WCC keep on giving planning permissions, and the Agency keeps on giving operating permissions, all with no proper open debate, public access to information, and no environmental impact assessment.

RUGBY RESIDENTS PICK UP THE BALL AND RUN!
The Rugby Advertiser on 18 October did a brilliant article concerning the DRAMA, ANGER , and REBELLION at the Rugby Cement Community Forum, as the Rugby residents fight back in a show of PEOPLE POWER! The ball is rolling - thank you Rugby Advertiser - so we pick up the ball and run. We have scored a "try" for Rugby! Come on - the scrum has begun!