Councils and campaigners clash over burning north London’s waste

Scrapping a controversial new incinerator midway through development would be the “worst possible outcome” for the London Borough of Camden and the six other boroughs that use it, says the North London Waste Authority (NLWA).

Campaigners from the Stop Edmonton Incinerator Now campaign (StEIN) wrote to energy secretary Ed Miliband in November, asking him to pull the plug on the £1.5bn project.

The incinerator, capable of burning 700,000 tonnes of north London’s waste every year, was given approval in 2017 and will replace a facility built in 1969.

Situated in Enfield, the incinerator would also serve Barnet, Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest.

StEIN had called on the Labour government to revoke the project’s development consent order, having argued it will release toxic particles into the air, which would constitute a public health risk.

Activists say it would also “undermine recycling” by creating a demand for waste, and the money should instead be invested into waste reduction.

In a letter to the energy secretary, NLWA chair Clyde Loakes said that the type of heating the incinerator would provide was “crucial to decarbonising the energy mix in the UK”.

He said not completing the project would be “detrimental” to north London residents and would deny them “a safe, clean and low-carbon solution for managing their waste” and local homes and businesses the “chance to benefit from low-carbon heating and hot water”.

He added that the scheme was approved following two rounds of public consultation, and a request for a judicial review was refused in 2019.

Cllr Loakes, who is also deputy leader of Waltham Forest Council, said: “Not everything can be recycled, and councils will still need a solution to deal with waste.”

Camden Council is represented on the NLWA by Cllr Adam Harrison and leader of the council Cllr Richard Olszewski.

Loakes, speaking on behalf of the seven councils, said: “We are disappointed that campaigners continue to attempt to stop a project which has been under construction for two years and which will provide the best long-term environmental solution for the waste generated by millions of people.

“Environmental groups should instead work with councils and government to tackle the causes of waste and target the producers responsible.”

However, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Black Lives Matter, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah CBE, and more than 30 other civil society groups who oppose the scheme said the NLWA’s claims about the incinerator’s benefits and heat supply were “unsubstantiated, confusing and long-refuted”.

A spokesperson for StEIN said it would be issuing a further statement to “expose [its] inaccuracies” and to urge Miliband not to take the letter at face value.

Work on the new incinerator is progressing well, an NLWA spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

They said construction activity had “increased,” steelworks had commenced and there were numerous subcontractors on site.

However, it was reported in August that high costs and labour shortages would delay the opening by two years.

It was due to be finished next year, but the NLWA said it would not be fully up and running until 2027, following a “challenging period” in the construction industry.

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