SIR – I would like to respond to the letter from Councillor Anthony Blagg, dated January 2, in which he defends Worcestershire County Council’s decision to choose incineration as the method of dealing with the waste from our two counties when firstly, the council’s own report declares this method to be the most damaging to our environment (worst performing in terms of acidification, ecotoxicology, adds to global warming and is the only process that actually produces toxic waste).

It is also widely recognised, by those who actually have knowledge on the subject, as being one of the most expensive ways of addressing our waste problem.

Coun Blagg has patronised the residents of Herefordshire and Worcestershire by thanking them for recycling yet is supporting the very method, ie mass burn incineration, which will suppress future recycling targets and convert hundreds of thousands of tonnes of recyclable materials into toxic ash (which will be put into our atmosphere, to be breathed in and put into the food chain, with the remaining amount being landfilled).

Any claim, therefore, that such a method is ‘better for the environment’ is either misguided or a deliberate attempt at a mistruth.

He has attempted to defend the figures for the council’s only option but fails to understand that the £1.6 billion proposed for this illthought out scheme could be delivered at a far lesser cost.

Fundamentally, the council has failed to properly consider the alternatives being implemented by other, more cost and environmentally conscious councils, and in doing so is happy for our taxes to be spent unnecessarily while making cuts to key services which will affect families and the vulnerable.

This council should, if it has the ability to act responsibly, look at those other councils who have undertaken robust options appraisals and properly consider the cheaper and cleaner alternatives chosen by them (with those councils being able to offer solutions at approximately half the cost).

I am disheartened that we have a councillor (a cabinet member with responsibility for the environment) who incredulously supports the option that scores worst in terms of environmental impact and that we have a leader of our council who openly stated “I don’t care how much the incinerator costs, I just want it!”.

I would offer that with these views neither of them is fit to hold office, and neither is any other councillor who supports this proposal while being ignorant of viable and more affordable alternatives.

MR R TRANTER

Kidderminster