Campaigners marched through town in protest against an incinerator, planned for the border of Sutton and Croydon, which would burn more than 200,000 tonnes of waste a year.
Organised by group Stop the Incinerator, around 100 protestors marched from Croydon University Hospital on Sunday May 13 to Croydon Town Hall, Katharine Street to highlight anger over plans for an incinerator on Beddington Lane.
Marching along London Road and North End, the group laid a wreath outside the town hall before holding rallying speeches at Queens Gardens.
Shasha Khan, a member of Croydon Green Party and Stop the Incinerator, said: “We laid the wreathe as a symbol to the death of democracy. It seems our council would rather serve the interests of corporations than its public.”
A full planning application for the incinerator is expected from waste management company Viridor in June.
The company was chosen to handle waste from Croydon, Kingston, Sutton and Merton by the South London Waste Partnership (SLWP), made up of members from each area’s council, at the end of last year.
Mr Khan added: “There were people from Sutton Merton and Croydon there. This is not a political matter – the ruling party in each council has given this the go-ahead because they are thinking about costs and the increasing price of landfill.
"We would like to see Conservative counsellors from Croydon step forward and join us to protest this plan.”
Coun Phil Thomas, cabinet member for environment and highways at Croydon Council and chairman of the SLWP , said: “The organisers of the march must have been disappointed by the turnout, most people were either Labour of Green Party members and the remainder of the people are those who like to go on marches."
He accused campaigners of spreading misinformation about the potential impact of an incinerator.
He said: “All they are interested in is scare-mongering.
“There are 400 plus facilities of this kind across Europe and the UK. Can they find anywhere in the world where they have cause any health problems?”
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