On Friday night more than 300 residents from Enfield, Barnet and Haringey attended the public meeting at Broomfield School, arranged by David Burrowes MP and attended by Pinkham Way Alliance, Theresa Villiers MP, local councillors and concerned residents.

It was not a large group of people complaining about some small local set of issues, but rather a room full of educated and engaged people who turned up on a cold and very wet evening and who could see clearly the very real future impact of building Britain’s largest new waste management site at Pinkham Way, plumb in the middle of a residential area.

However, we are fighting the plans with one arm tied behind our back. Enfield’s Labour council has already signed off for the plan. Councillor Chris Bond, as cabinet member for environment, put pen to paper in May 2011.

However, Councillor Achilleas Georgiou, the deputy leader of the council spoke at the public meeting about having “deep concerns over that plan’ — but he spoke to the audience in soft tones and never said he was against the plans outright.

Bowes Ward on the A406 will be directly affected by the Pinkham Way site. This is Cllr Georgiou’s own ward, which is is currently suffering during the improvement phase of the A406.

Ultimately the residents will see improvements, but this will be short-lived if the waste site goes ahead.

The ward councillors include the confused-over-policy Cllr Achilleas Geogiou, Councillor Yasemin Brett and Councillor Alan Sitkin.

On March 29 Cllr Alan Sitkin spoke at the area forum in favour for the development of Pinkham Way and even suggested that electric HGV vehicles be developed to transport waste to the this site. Cllr Alan Sitkin was unable to attend and face his residents last night who may ask him to explain this?

Maybe his absence can be explained because he was at home designing this new HGV technology rather that facing his residents who will have to cope with the noise, traffic and pollution? At the end of the meeting Enfield Labour councillors disappeared like magic, in a puff of pollution smoke.

If the Pinkham Way site goes ahead, residents and passing motorists will be able to sit on the A406, admiring the road improvements, choking on the smog while looking at one of the many hundreds of additional daily HGV vehicles that will be gridlocked on their way to the waste site.

The will and need to recycle more was clear to everyone present, and the general feeling was that the North London Waste Authority made up from the seven local boroughs should be working together rather than spending £100 million on this bad idea develop more recycling facilities.

Besides the many possible legal flaws in the proposals is the fact that within a stone’s throw of the site is the South Green, Ladderswood Estate. This is being redeveloped to provide 400 new family homes. The current work on improvements to the A406 and New Southgate area will mean that some of the most neglected parts of the constituency can look forward to being the most regenerated.

However the plans to build Britain’s biggest waste management site at Pinkham Way threatens this outlook.

The scale of the Pinkham Way waste facility will take us in the wrong direction at the wrong time.

Residents and Londoners have fought too long for the improvements to the North Circular Road and New Southgate only to see the area dumped upon.

Residents can fight the plans by supporting the ‘No to Pinkham’, campaign and not just alternative sites should be sought by NLWA, but alternative ideas should be developed to tackle the waste. More recycling points, home composting kits, etc.

The Labour administration is duplicitous and if this site is dumped locally, it is all local residents who will suffer this bad planning.

Cllr Daniel Pearce
Conservative, Southgate