Readers will be well aware of the stench coming from the rotten borough of Sutton, where the LibDem council gave a £1 million discount to a company of which neighbouring MP Tom Brake is a trustee and unpaid director. Ecolocal, an environmental charity based in the borough, won its £600,000 bid for the historic local Lodge building, despite the council’s own valuations estimating it to be worth £1.5-1.7 million. That’s just the tip of the iceberg…

Before Ecolocal was awarded the discount, the eco-charity was oddly quiet about controversial plans to build a 300,000 tonne a year incinerator in the borough. Incinerator operators Viridor will be allowed to burn rubbish for 25 years with a taxpayer-funded contract worth £1 billion. Ecolocal is the premier environmental organisation in the borough, yet they were strangely silent. Surely they would have something to say? 

The Brake-linked charity says its primary aim is to “help people move toward more pro-environmental behaviours”, yet had no comment about plans to build one of London’s largest waste incinerators inside their borough. Coincidentally they were then awarded a £1 million discount by the LibDem council, voted through by two of Brake’s own staff. Local councillor Nick Mattey says:

“Ecolocal would commit financial suicide if they criticised any element of the LibDem’s ‘environmental policy’. If the LibDems suggested that setting light to Battersea dogs home was green Ecolocal would stay mute.”

Curiouser and curiouser…