waste incinerator
Heard before His Honour Judge Mervyn Roberts
Crown Prosecution Service: Mr Christopher Ball QC and Mr Morris
Defending: Mr Owen Davies QC and Ms Judy Khan
The day began with the testimony of Richard Watson, who told the court he lived in a narrowboat in Hackney from which he could see Edmonton incinerator. Mr Watson told the jury that he had been involved with Greenpeace since the mid 80s, mainly as a volunteer but also was sometimes paid to work in the Greenpeace workshop.
He said he had qualifications in metal work and welding, as well as considerable experience in carpentry and had run his own business restoring timber framed buildings.
Mr Watson had also passed the IRATA (Industrial Rope Access Trade Association) course, which is recognised by the Health and Safety Executive. Mr Watson told the jury that his role in the action was to be responsible for the equipment that the volunteers took up the chimney.
Mr Watson told the jury he had been aware of the problems of incineration since the mid 80s when he lived near an incinerator at Clitheroe in Lancashire. He said incinerator emissions were appalling as they either come out of the top, go to landfill or end up as ash in building materials.
Mr Watson said, "whatever way you look at it the pollution is still there. It is either in the air, in the ground or in a brick"
In the late 90s his then girlfriend worked for the Environment Agency in Lancashire, the body responsible for regulating incineration.
He told the court her job was to sit by the phone and wait for a complaint about the Clitheroe incinerator and then go and take an air sample, by which time the plume had normally moved on.
When cross examined by Mr Christopher Ball QC as to why he didn't move his narrowboat further away from Edmonton incinerator, Mr Watson told the court that it was his "human right to breathe clean air and not Edmonton's right to pollute it."
He also said, "Is everyone who objects to Edmonton supposed to move to a lovely rural area"
The final defence witness was John Large who runs a firm of consultant engineers, Large and Associates, with particular expertise in mechanical, civil and nuclear engineering. Mr Large told the court he was asked by Greenpeace to carry out a survey of the top of the chimney after the occupation. Mr Large told the court that Greenpeace volunteers drilling a few holes for climbing bolts was like "a flea on a dogs back".
