“Nottingham University Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption has asked that Derby Furniture Project provide figures for the numbers of electrical items repaired and reused, through the Derby Furniture project. This must amount to hundreds, if not thousands, in the time it has been running. In addition, two apprentices have been trained there, to repair electrical items.
Are such apprenticeships to be destroyed if the name of the 'company' or charity does not fit?? These items were then resold, with guarantees, for low cost, to families and people who cannot afford full cost electrical equipment - fridges, washing machines, toasters, kettles etc and who are Derby Homes or council tenants. On Sale Days (which need to be better advertised btw) some fantastic pieces of furniture and bric-a-brac are also available for the public to buy – I believe that one item on display on last Saturday – a long pink leather 70's style chaise longue, - may well be a future antique.
We also ask Cllr Higginbottom, the Chair of Derby FP how she can help save this valuable project which offers hope to families, poorer sections of society, young people, provides workshop space and future apprenticeships and saves resources for future generations.
The Derby FP truly meets the definition of sustainable development - that we ensure that resources are left for future generations.

The City Council are missing vital links here; under the terms of the Waste Incineration Directives, we have to set up Waste Minimisation Programmes showing how we are reducing waste going to landfill and applying the tenets of the waste hierarchy - that is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, BEFORE landfill and incineration. How much furniture and electrical items will now be sent to landfill or destroyed instead? (The questions above still apply too)
The Waste Electrcial Equipment Directive (WEE) also states that we reuse and save resources. This is exactly what the Furniture Project did.

We also ask the city Council that they think again. We have asked the Incinerator Inquiry Inspector on his site visits, to visit both the FP and Derby Play and Recycling Centre, (as examples of sustainable waste management) and these show how the City Council are progressing planning legislation (National Planning Policy Framework, PPS 1 etc)

As we run out of resources on this planet (lets not forget we haven't found any suitable minerals we need, an any other planets) it is vital we use the metals we have sustainably, not burn or bury them, where they can then invade our systems. (See SSAIN contribution to previous inquiry -
http://tinyurl.com/3hg6apc

NB There are now an extra 20 days to comment on the proposed Sainsburys Kingsway incineration plant in the Abbey ward – letters on the SSAIN Facebook site shortly) The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has recently announced studies to be carried out around 'modern' incineration plants (which still use the techniques which we first developed as cavemen) on any extra cases of low birth weights and birth defects, as these are known to occur because of the pollutants from combustion plants. (see SSAIN evidence) We hope Sainsburys will endeavour to help the HPA with their inquiries about any such extra cases, in the Abbey ward.

Derby and South Derbyshire Friends of the Earth”

“Vote blue, go green" is the Conservative slogan on the environment. The manifesto says the party has a "responsibility to be the greenest government in our history". That could mean new "green taxes". The party will "increase the proportion of tax revenues accounted for by environmental taxes", the manifesto says. But critics wonder whether, in a time of economic uncertainty, voters will want to pay more tax in the name of the environment.

Key environment policies include:

Working towards zero waste
Providing incentives to recycle
Encouraging sustainable water management
Work for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy
Offering every household a Green Deal
Transforming electricity networks with 'smart grid' and 'smart meter' technology
Expanding offshore wind and marine power”

“Simon, I echo Derby_born's comments about your letter. You really ought to give serious consideration for standing in the City Council election in May. Not as a candidate for one of the three main parties, or as a single issue candidate, but as an independent. Local politics needs people like yourself.”

“Join the Fb page Save the Derby Furniture project, Thanks x”

“https://http://tinyurl.com/6orel88 please join the fb group, its a disgrace we have lost a vital project!”

“Well said Sim. The Play and Recycling Centre is also under threat. Its going to look bad when the incinerator inquiry Inspector can't go and visit these on the site visits because they no longer exist.
That will look like the councils intentionally breaching the waste Hierarchy and WID leguislation on reduction, reusing and recycling resources, and relying on disposal through incineration and landfill instead Questions abound....Could it be that contractual targets aren't going to be met otherwise? During the Compactor days how much was actually recycled? Was the Furniture project asked to take items which could be reused or was the lot scrapped? We should be told - maybe RRS/Shanks will answer some of these questions at the inquiry, as they need as much waste inthe blackbin as possible and the councils to 'procure' them more, in order to meet targets .

NB The woodwaste burning incinerator (O-GEN) behind Sainsburys and B&Q on Osmaston Park Rd will already be breaching Air Quality Standards and legislation, as well as emitting dioxin, sulphur dioxide, mercury etc, so another incinerator is hardly going to improve air quality standards, which are already being breached in the 3 Air Quality Management Areas in the city. According to the Wood Panel Trades Association, a million tonnes of such resuable wood is lost every year to landfill disposal and incineration, instead of recycling.

Re burning - the Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS) can be turned off at any time and no-one will know, other than the City Council through the nitrogen dioxide and PM10 monitoring and the NHS, on the increased number of hospital admissions for respiratory distress, already high in this city, as well as increased infant mortality rates, also high in the areas surrounding the incinerator site. Then theres the CO2 - 172,000 tonnes for RRS/Shanks incinerator and 30,000 tonnes yearly for the O-GEN incinerator

Hardly fits the definition of sustainable development, does it?

Derby and South Derbyshire Friends of the Eearth”

“Simon, a good letter. I was involved with the Furniture Project back in the late 1980s when it started (I worked for Derby CVS). Funding was a problem then, and it has always been a problem, a solution has always been found and I would hope that the organisation will be able to put forward a good bid for funding from one of he many sources available. I was on the management team of a local charity for 16 years and Council Funding was never guaranteed, we often had to dig deep into the Fund-finder databases and draw up proposals that would fulfil the requirements set out by the various trusts and charitable foundations that provided funding for specific purposes.

On the subject of recycling and the Furniture Project, this must surely offer opportunities for training in upholstery work, refrigerator engineering (the project used to provide refrigerators for low income families), and other skills - would training grants be available for this? Surely it is worth investigating?
Some comments posted here do seem to be rather off-subject and pointless as Simon says, the article is about funding for the Furniture Project, so where does the incinerator come into this? However I would say that re-using furniture is far better than dumping it into a land-fill site or burning it - it makes good financial sense to repair and re-use. And it is also interesting that Derby made £124,000 from recycling in 2010/11, that sounds like good financial sense to me.”

“@santa_claus whats that got to do with the article ? the article was about funding for a furniture project but as you bring it up If recycling was a con then the council wouldnt make money from it - £124,000 in 2010/11 !
No matter if you think recycling is a con or not none of us have the right to destroy the resources of future generations - burn it and its gone for ever, recycle it and that natural resource is saved for the future !”

“If we can't bury or burn our waste what is the alternative? Consider the word 'viable' before commenting please”

“When will these muppets understand - the plant is going to be built somewhere, and if it's not at Sinfin then someone else will have to put up with it.

Recycling is a con and no more "environmentally friendly" (whatever that phrase means) that any other method of disposal. Excessive packaging is the problem, not disposal.”