MADAM – In recent weeks, there has been a lot said about plans to build an incinerator at Javelin Park.

One statement which has been repeated by the Tory leader of the county council, Mark Hawthorne, is that: “It was a Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors back in 2004 who first identified Javelin Park for a strategic incinerator.”

Sadly, Cllr Hawthorne has failed to give the public the whole story.

Back in 2004, the county council, which was run by a coalition of Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors, published a Waste Local Plan that explored several ideas about how Gloucestershire could manage its waste.

Javelin Park, which was then known as ‘site 4,’ was identified on a list of 21 strategic sites that could be used to deal with the county’s waste.

Javelin Park was identified as having the potential for eight different waste management solutions. including incineration: the others being material recovery, inert recovery and recycling, metals recycling, household waste and recycling, anaerobic digestion, as well as waste transfer stations and composting.

Therefore, it would be wrong to claim that Labour and Liberal councillors identified Javelin Park solely as a site for incineration: rather, it was identified, along with 20 other sites, for its potential to accommodate a vast range of waste disposal technologies.

It is also important to remember that in 2004, the then Labour/Liberal-run county council had opted to build an MBT plant and had made plans to award the contract to a successful bidder.

However, despite campaigning to “stop incinerators being built in Gloucestershire,” when the Tories took control of the council in 2005, they cancelled the previous administration’s plan to build an MBT facility.

Instead, they set about finding an alternative waste disposal solution and they opted to build an incinerator.

In 2009, the Tories purchased Javelin Park for the specific purpose of dealing with non-recyclable rubbish.

It cost the tax payer £7.4million.

Lesley Williams

Brain Oosthuysen

Steve Lydon

Steve McHale

Graham Morgan

Barry Kirby

Tracy Millard

Paul McMahon

Jasminder Gill

Labour county councillors