In response to Mr Elwick's letter about the fire at the Brighton recycling site (February 10), the public household waste-recycling site in Brighton is in no way comparable to the new waste sorting, processing and transfer facilities proposed by Veolia Environmental Services (VES, formerly Onyx) in Newhaven and Hollingdean.
In our experience, a fire at a household-waste recycling site is extremely rare.
The company places great emphasis on the safety of its operations and our two sites, still subject to the planning process, will be fitted with the latest firewarning and suppression systems.
The suitability of these systems will be independently assessed by the appropriate local authorities through the statutory building regulations and by East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service through the statutory fire regulations.
Once operational, in addition to VES's own management regime, these arrangements will be routinely inspected by the Government's environment agency and health and safety executive.
This shows there are a number of organisations working to ensure the risk of fire is minimised and kept under continuous scrutiny. Mr Elwick's preference is that no facilities are built at all. This is not an option and we must ensure there is more recycling, composting and other benefits from household waste. To do this, we need a network of waste management facilities in the area.
-John Collis, project director, Veolia Environmental Services
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