Campaigners say a council plan to distribute heat from a controversial incinerator is a "smoke screen".
Sutton Council is to set up an energy company to distribute heat generated by the planned energy recovery (ERF) facility to be built in Beddington Lane.
The plant will take non-recyclable rubbish from Sutton, Croydon, Merton and Kingston and burn it. The resulting energy will be converted to electricity and put into the national grid and the heat will be available for distribution.
Similar plants in other areas of the country have struggled to find suppliers for the heat but, on Monday, Sutton councillors agreed for its inward-investment programme Opportunity Sutton to set up a company to distribute the heat to the nearby Felnex development, a 750 home plan which will start to become available in 2016, at a meeting on Monday.
Councillor Colin Hall, deputy leader of Sutton Council, said: "Fuel poverty and energy security are very serious issues to residents. This project can go some way towards providing cheaper power and calming their fears."
Stop the Incinerator campaigners
But campaign group Stop the Incinerator, which opposes the planned ERF as it fears it will produce harmful emissions, says it thinks the announcement is a ploy to sway London mayor Boris Johnson, who has the final say over the incinerator being built.
Paul Pickering, chairman of Stop the Incinerator, said: "This is a smoke screen. Huge amounts of the generated heat would be lost or simply not required, such as in the current weather conditions being enjoyed across the UK.
"Campaigners at Stop The Incinerator are warning Mayor Boris Johnson not to be sucked in by Sutton Council’s announcement regarding the sale of heat to the new development, Felnex, at Hackbridge. Similar schemes have been given consideration across the UK in the past but very few ever see the light of day.
"A cynic might believe that the submission of the planning paperwork by Sutton council to City Hall has been deliberately delayed until such time as this announcement could be made."
Sutton Council gave planning permission for the ERF in a meeting in May. The Mayor will have the final say and is set to make an announcement in the near future.
The site of the planned incinerator
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