THE FUTURE OF WASTE IN THE EAST RIDING AND HULL
I attended a meeting led by three consultants from Enviros at the Guildhall, Hull, at 7.15, on Wednesday 22 September 2004.
It was described by the hosts as a "one of a series of public meetings", but they admitted that these meetings were by invitation, and so not public. While Hull City Council is throwing money away, perhaps it could buy a dictionary.
These are my own impressions, and I must admit I left the meeting at 9 because I had a rehearsal to go to.
The first thing that I want to say is that the two Councils are wasting our money. The three Enviros people were unsure of themselves, not capable of conducting a meeting, and clumsy and ineffective speakers. All they wanted to do, and all they were capable of doing, was walking through a Powerpoint presentation of the questionnaire which had already been distributed, though not to all those attending, and by many filled in. This was a complete waste of our time.
The meeting was announced as being "to hear [our] views on a topic of importance", but, although many points were raised by the audience, nobody from Enviros appeared to be taking notes, nor was it announced that the meeting was being recorded.
Furthermore, it became increasingly plain to those attending that the terms of reference had been wrongly framed. The Enviros team said repeatedly that they were only considering what was to be done with the residual waste stream, even though some of the techniques to be considered were appropriate for removing waste from the stream before it became residual. As was pointed out to them repeatedly and forcefully, an intelligent approach to waste management ought to start from the top, reduce waste arisings and aim to minimise the residual stream as much as possible. Enviros and the Councils appear to be content to with reaching modest targets, rather than hoping to exceed ambitious ones.
In short, the whole approach was felt to be flawed, and the meeting was unsatisfactory.
I will admit that putting three inadequate and inexperienced persons into a room of known and vociferous protesters could be considered as cruelty to dumb animals. Why can't our Councils show some intelligence and get some competent people on the job?
The meeting I attended was obviously for all the troublemakers.
John Morfin, Douglas Marcham, Wes Paxton shouting out in favour of incineration, me, Louise, Mel Pink, Diana Sandy, others whose names I don't know but whom I saw at the incinerator inquiry.
All it achieved was to make a number of people very angry with the Councils, convince them even more that something fishy is going on, and demonstrate that Enviros are a bunch of incompetents who couldn't organise a p*ss-*p in a br*w*ry.
Stephen
