NEWPORT’S Labour leader yesterday hit out at plans to build an incinerator in the city, accusing the Tory and Lib Dem-led council of allowing it to become the only option for alternative waste disposal.

Opposition leader Cllr Bob Bright said the executive, which runs the council, signed up to a deal which could tie Newport to potentially harmful incineration for the next 25 years, when it joined a consortium of five councils in talks with Prosiect Gwyrdd, to look at incineration as an alternative to landfill in 2009.

He also claims it has committed the authority to a feasibility study to select a site in the area in the knowledge it could face a £3 million penalty if the Veolia-proposed project for Bowleaze Common in Llanwern, was accepted by the committee but refused by Newport council.

He said a future Labour council would challenge the legality of any clause and criticised the Tory/Lib Dem members for their poor attendance at Prosiect Gwyrdd committee meetings.

He said: “There was no real public consultation with Newport people and the Con- Dems have avoided any real process of information and consultation about the site, or incineration.”

The Newport scheme is one of several initiatives proposed by firms bidding for the Prosiect Gwyrdd contract – a joint initiative by Newport, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff council to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

But Cllr David Fouweather, cabinet member for street services, hit back at the claims, highlighting that Prosiect Gwyrdd began while Labour were in control of the council in 2005.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Incinerator facts are vital

IT WAS inevitable that when proposals for an incinerator in Newport were first discussed people would have concerns.

Now the city’s Labour group says the plans should never be allowed to become reality and has written to the Assembly asking to put an end to incineration as a way of getting rid of waste.

Already more than 1,600 people have signed the various petitions opposing the scheme and a campaign group is fighting the proposals.

The plans for the incinerator are in their early stages, and in fact may never amount to anything.

But the prospect of such a development inevitably raises questions.

What we want is an assurance that throughout this whole project, residents are given the most up to date and detailed information that is possible.

The onus is on Project Gwyrdd to ensure that as much accurate information is given.

Clearly people do not want this in their back yard but they are so far basing their fears on next to no information.

We do not know how large this incinerator will be, what it will look like or what will be in place to stop emissions getting into the atmosphere.

And this is why we need much more information because people deserve to know what is being suggested as soon as is possible.