The opinion of Gavin Barwell, Croydon Central MP, towards the Viridor incinerator is completely irrelevant.
Many Labour supporters have spent the week trying to embarass Mr. Barwell into taking a firm stand against the incinerator. This is something Mr. Barwell cannot do.
Not because Mr. Barwell has a deep love for incinerators. Not even because he will spend more time being sweet talked by Viridors sale teams instead of listening to alternatives. These guys have well prepared pitch and will leave him thinking that there is only one option.
The decision on wheither or not to be build an incinerator has long since left the rights and wrongs of the issue behind.
The main reason for building an incinerator is now to avoid making Councillor Thomas looking like a fool.
Croydon Labour are as much to blame as anyone. Maybe it's the political system as a whole.
I would expect Mr. Barwell to come to his own decision on the merits of the incinerator. Wheither his political opponants like it or not, he is an intelligent individual. However, the Croydon Labour party would be popping champagne between now and Christmas if he came out against the incinerator. This is a prize too great for any Conservative to hand to Labour on a plate.
There is a precedent though.
In 2006 Kent CC were in the same shoes and went ahead with the Allington incinerator. At the time Councillor Keith Ferrin said it had to be done to deal with Kents' rubbish. Now he says he got duff information, that the decision was a stupid one and he curses the 25 year contract he has locked himself into.
That took real guts to come out and say that. I bet if he could turn back time to before the contact was signed and the incinerator built he would make a different decision. That is where we are now here in Croydon. We do not need to sleep-walk into another bad decision because we are too ashamed to admit we were wrong.
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