Councillor has axe to grind over waste management site

Oct 9 2008 by Our Correspondent, West Lothian Courier

I WOULD like to respond to the letter published on October 2 in the West Lothian Courier from councillor Neil Findlay regarding Levenseat Limited, the company that owns and operates the Levenseat Waste Management Site.

I am the managing director of Levenseat Limited and write on behalf of the company to express our disappointment that councillor Findlay is using his position as an elected councillor to pursue his own personal objections to the waste management site.

Your readers should be informed that in his private capacity, Mr Findlay was a founder member of the action group against the development of the site and has remained personally hostile to the site and company since then.

I would like your readers to understand that it is their waste which is recycled/composted/landfilled at the site and a total of 27 locally based people are employed at the site.

Of the 27 staff only two are engaged with landfilling, the rest being involved with recycling and composting of waste materials. In addition, the company uses local service companies extensively to support our day-to-day operations.

References made by councillor Findlay to SEPA are misleading – as a regulated waste management facility, the site is subject to regular inspections by SEPA which is the norm in the waste industry and demonstrates that SEPA are doing their job.

The SEPA Notices referred to have all been responded to through increased investment and improvements at the site, particularly focused on recycling and composting of waste.

Our objective is to work with the community to develop and improve the waste management service we provide to deal with the community's waste. The planning application referred to by councillor Findlay is related to increasing levels of recycling/composting to divert waste from landfill, hence the longer period applied for due to projected decreases in landfill tonnages.

This involves no increase in landfill capacity at the site – increased tonnages primarily relate to recycling/composting tonnages. This is entirely in line with policy requirements of local councils and the Scottish Government.

I have recently met with councillor Findlay and invited him to visit the site to see on-going works. There is also a long-standing open invitation to him (not yet taken up) to join the Community Liaison Group meetings where all matters pertinent to the site are discussed with local community representatives.

In the meantime, the company has restarted its Acorn project to support environmental projects at local schools through the Levenseat Trust and over the next few months will be seeking to expand educational visits to come and view our activities on site.

T C Walsh

Managing Director

Levenseat Limited