Incinerator plans going up in smoke

THE rejection of the Northallerton incinerator plan by Harrogate Borough Council was followed by news of another incinerator plan being cancelled, this one after a public inquiry in Bedford.

It’s incredible that York and North Yorkshire Councils are still clinging to their plans in the face of so much opposition and implausibility. Bedford is only the latest in a list as long as your arm: last November, a project in Norfolk was shelved due to a total lack of public support.

A month earlier, it was St Dennis in Cornwall having theirs cancelled due to environmental impacts and political double-dealing. The same month, Leicestershire Council said “no” to one. In September it was one getting cancelled in Staffordshire and before that we had Rufforth Colliery, Invergordon and Derby all going down the pan.

Bedford is a particularly interesting case: one of the reasons for refusal was that the council there hadn’t finished working out its waste strategy yet. North Yorkshire’s own plan is similarly delayed. After having it thrown out in 2008 and being told to start from scratch, they’ve only just finished the first round of consultation.

So much has changed since that fateful, choiceless consultation back in 2005. The waste strategy officers didn’t see the recycling and composting revolution coming at the time – and many councillors are still having trouble cottoning on.

York and North Yorkshire Councils have sunk so much money into this plan already that it’s going to be hard for them to turn it around. But that’s what they must do if they are to avert wasting far, far more.

Common sense on cycle lanes

From: R Oliver, Lime Close, Calow, Chesterfield.

I WRITE regarding your article and the quotes from MP Julian Sturdy requiring councils to give businesses discount rates to generate more cycle lanes (Yorkshire Post, February 25). All that his suggestion will do is create more administration for the councils involved.

A simpler thing would be to direct an amount from the business rates now being extracted from them and direct it into the project(s) that he requires.

Fabian Hamilton quotes Holland as the leader in this field but fails to state that Holland has more area than the UK and has the land to construct such lanes. Also, it is below sea level and most of the country is flat and Leeds would not compare on this alone.

Yes, we all require to use the roads but on an equal footing and without any subsidies going into one area.

As with the wind farms and PV section of power generation, all vastly subsidised and therefore not cost effective, some have their fingers in the systems.

With MPs such as the above, I think it’s time we got back to the basics of common sense and maths.

A matter of doing good

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Bradford.

MIKE Perry of Baildon writes (Yorkshire Post, February 18), “I am neither a Christian or religious, but I side with Cameron”. Being a good “Christian” to me simply means being a good person, regardless of whether one believes in the Bible or not!

John Wesley said the following words any Methodists will know, which can be heeded by the follower of any religion or none: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, as long as ever you can.”

I am sure these words from a religious man will strike a chord with Mr Perry, although he said he is neither a Christian or religious.

From: Peter Wood, Scaftworth Close, Doncaster.

IT has always struck me how Christians love to attach labels to those who dare to disagree with them.

Terms such as heathens, heretics, pagans or dissenters have now been replaced by “atheist fundamentalists” or “aggressive secularists”.

What some Christians seem to want is to return to a time when everyone was expected to “know their place” – the “rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate” mentality.

It was also a time when this country exported Christianity to those far-off lands whose inhabitants were blissfully unaware of their own ignorance – a situation which needed correcting!

I still get uneasy over the lengths some religious people will go to in spreading God`s message and I question their motives.

My position is a simple one, people should be free to follow whatever religion they choose without fear of persecution, but religion should be kept separate from public life.