Traffic chaos in waste plant go-slow protest

8:31am Monday 11th December 2006

City centre streets were brought to a virtual standstill by dozens of vehicles on a slow-moving protest.

About 30 cars and six bicycles crawled from Newhaven to Brighton and back again to object to plans to build a giant incinerator for household waste.

The demonstration yesterday afternoon was part of a long-running campaign involving thousands of people.

Brighton and Hove City Council and East Sussex County Council want to build an incinerator in North Quay, Newhaven, to burn rubbish when landfill space runs out.

The Defenders of the Ouse Valley and Estuary (Dove), which arranged the car crawl, want the councils to look at other ways of dealing with waste.

The cars, mounted with A-boards, pictures and even a coffin, travelled along the A259, West Street and North Road.

Gary Alderson, 41, of King's Avenue Newhaven, who helped organise the protest with his wife Janice, said: "Incinerators emit toxic dioxins and other pollutants. Apart from dirty technology, we believe it is the wrong technology.

"What we need to do is recycle and collect biodegradable waste.

"Somerset has achieved a 40 per cent recycling rate. There are a lot of authorities aiming for zero waste." Chris Chatwin, 56, chairman of Dove, warned that if the two councils failed to listen, protests would become more extreme.

He said: "We are pursuing all the legitimate routes. There will be a lot more direct action. There have been 15,000 letters of protest which it appears they want to ignore. They do it at their own peril."

Councillor Marina Pepper, chairwoman of Lewes District Council, said: "We should be reducing our waste at source and there should be legislation to stop so much packaging being produced."

Dorothy Kempin, 58, from Mount Pleasant, Newhaven, said: "England doesn't need incineration. We need the people of Brighton to get behind us, not just for us but for everybody."

Ian Davey, of Titian Road, Hove, and the Green Party candidate for St Peter's and North Laine in the forthcoming city council elections, said: "This is a really old way of dealing with waste.

"Brighton and Hove need to totally re-examine their waste policy. We need to look at much smaller-scale solutions."

The crawl was supported by Dump the Dump, which opposes a transfer station for the rubbish in Hollingdean Lane, Brighton, and PROUD (Peacehaven Residents Against Urban Development) which opposes a sewage works at Lower Hoddern Farm.

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