Sid began his hunger strike on Tuesday 29th May - camped outside Gloucestershire County Council night and day.

I loved nature when I was a boy. I still do.

I have looked on in horror and amazement as our desire to consume has led us to trailblaze our way across the planet exhausting precious materials. And I live in hope and joy as a wave of plastic awareness blossoms and I meet people searching for different, more connected and meaningful ways to live our lives.

Incineration doesn’t encourage waste reduction or recycling and creates harmful pollution, so it inherently isn’t good. But it is possible to put measures in place to help improve a bad situation. You can pre-sort all the waste, making sure you don’t burn any valuable resources, and you can harness nearly 80% of the energy created. The council can also make an informed democratic decision having considered viable alternative proposals.

None of this happened in Gloucester.

• We have a mass burn incinerator that burns valuable minerals, plastic, food waste and compost all together.

• The setup of the waste contract is such that it undermines district recycling programs.

• It harnesses less than 25% of its energy.

• It has a short flume and the high buildings create a ‘downwash’, pulling more than average dangerous particulates and dioxides into the local environment.

• The council planning committee unanimously voted against the incinerator and yet the building went ahead anyway.

• Cheaper alternatives that took long term health implications and encouraging recycling into account are precluded by the predatory pricing of the incinerator contract.

• The council may have to import waste from outside of Gloucestershire to meet its obligations under the contract.

The incinerator is being built, so why act?

The council’s lack of transparency needs to be exposed. A two year Freedom of Information fight ended in a judge ruling that the contract should indeed be in the public domain. But during this drawn-out process, the Council quietly renegotiated the contract - and are now refusing to show the Revised Project Plan to us. Why? It is our money and we should know how it is being spent. We can also put pressure on the council to refrain from burning recyclable waste, including plastics.

What do we want the money for?

• To take legal action. Expert legal advice has said that GCC’s contract may be in breach of competition law, and if we raise enough money, we can take it to Judicial Review. There have been many more extraordinarily suspicious turns in this case but for brevity I omit them here.) We want to bring the truth to light. £50,000 would give us the possibility to do so.

• To help cover the loss of earnings that I as a self-employed builder will have missed out on. I have two young children, and all the normal household bills. I will be out of action for a while, dependent on how long I need to strike for. If I can cover bills so we don’t get too in the red this would be great. I would like if possible to be able to cover a reduced salary rate of minimum wage, £7.83, an hour for the hours I could have worked (9–5, Mon–Fri).