News

21st October 2002

MEP visits Southwark to highlight growing fridge mountain

John Bowis - Conservative Member of the European Parliament for Southwark and Environment spokesman - was in College Ward, Dulwich, on Wednesday 16th October 2002 with local Councillor – Lewis Robinson - listening to the concerns of local people about the failure of the government to enable local Council’s to successfully deal with the problem of the growing fridge mountain. John Bowis also accused the British Government of letting down the people of Southwark by its miserable failure over the EU recycling law. The Government failed to prepare local authorities in London for the implications of the law it agreed two years ago. As a consequence, many local authorities in London are unable to cope and the Government could face prosecution - leading to a possible fine - in the European Court of Justice.

Speaking from Dulwich, John Bowis said, “In 2000 the government signed up to an EU regulation on CFC. This obliges the UK to remove CFC from the cooling circuits and insulation foam of old fridges – CFC destroys the ozone layer which protects us from potentially lethal radiation. However, at present there seem to be no facilities in the UK able to deal with this problem - the government has failed to provide the facilities capable of extracting these ozone depleting substances. I will be urging the government to follow the example of other EU countries who are so much better prepared for dealing with this problem than we are.”

Cllr Lewis Robinson (College Ward) added, “The growing fridge mountain is a consequence of the government failing to prepare local authorities to deal with this problem properly.”