New clause 32 - Moratorium on new municipal incinerators
Waste and Emissions Trading Bill [Lords]
5:51 pm
Mr Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle is right. I have seen no attempts by the Government to seek to minimise incineration, although the Minister makes the point regularly when pushed. When I asked him about incineration he said:
''I have already said that the Government do not support any significant expansion of incineration.—[Official Report, 6 March 2003; Vol. 400, c. 945.]
That is his policy, and it is one with which we all concur. Unfortunately, it is not the reality. Only four days later, in a parliamentary question, the hon. Member for Southampton, Test asked
''how many waste incinerators are planned by waste disposal authorities; what the capacity is of each incinerator planned; and what information she collates on the contractual arrangements for waste disposal.''—[Official Report, 10 March 2003; Vol. 401, c. 6W.]
That is a thoroughly proper question. The Minister, who had said beforehand that the Government did not support the expansion of incineration, listed a page of incinerators that were coming on line. Clearly, his wish to minimise incineration is not borne out by reality—there are incinerators all over the country. The hon. Member for Southampton, Test, in his excellent, forensic analysis on Second Reading, gave a clear indication of why it is almost inevitable that incinerators will pop up and down across our land. I hope that he will speak in this debate.