Burner protesters set up website

Wednesday 18th February 2009, 1:00PM GMT.

An artist’s impression of the Battlefield incineratorCampaigners fighting against multi-million pound plans to create an incinerator in Shrewsbury have set up a protest group on social networking site Facebook in a bid to gather extra support.

The organisation Safe Waste in Shropshire has set up the group entitled “say no to the Battlefield Incinerator” which has attracted interest, with organisers saying it has already amassed more than 80 members.

Veolia has submitted a planning application for the £60 million burner which it says will generate electricity for more than 10,000 homes. But protesters say they are concerned over potential  health risks and the risk of a negative impact on the area.

Meanwhile another group has also been set up on Facebook by user Michael Nijsten called “action against ERF Incinerator, Battlefield, Shrewsbury” with 226 members.

A statement on the group page for SWS calls on residents to show their support and pile pressure on Veolia to scrap its plans.

It says: “Incinerator plants are the source of serious toxic pollutants: dioxins; furans; acid gases; particulates; heavy metals such as lead and mercury; this needs to be treated very seriously. The emissions from burning garbage are extremely toxic. 

“We must stop this insanity to protect the health of our children, our grandchildren and our planet. There are numerous studies that link incinerators to cancer, birth defects, numerous respiratory problems and heart problems.”

News of the protest groups come after Veolia was reported to advertising watchdogs amid claims it “misled” the public in a leaflet about proposals for the Battlefield incinerator.

Senior members of Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council have also written to the Government Office of the West Midlands asking for the application to be called in before Shropshire Council considers it.

Veolia disputes the health risk claims.

It says it stands by its literature and insists that the incinerator is a “proven and safe” way to handle waste that is not recycled or composted.

By Russell Roberts


  1. 1
    JOHN BOY

    shame on them for not recycling it

    Report abuse

  2. 2
    Tory Boy

    we must stop this burner because its being imposed from above my the EU and the Labour Government, the Conservatives in the local Shrewsbury council are opposing it and we are going to bring back eekly bin day when we get in too, so better waste services and less “waste” like Labour give us with bloated beurocarts on fat cat salaries telling us to sort our waste for the EU

    Report abuse

  3. 3
    PAULO

    not good for our town

    Report abuse

  4. 4
    peter

    we should all recycle more instead

    Report abuse

  5. 6
    Smart alec

    looks modern and futuristic design, not really in keeping with SY1 is it

    Report abuse

  6. 7
    Meole Salopian

    anyone can set up a facebook group these days it doesnt mean anything, if you start an e-petition on the PM’s website tommorrow in favour of legalising conkers i bet you’ll get a thousand sign up

    Report abuse

  7. 8
    Dick James

    Meole Salopian, does this mean conkers are currently illegal? If so, and someone sets up a group to legalise it, I’ll have to join so that we can get it legalised and stop me breaking the law each autumn…

    Report abuse

  8. 9
    Tory Boy

    BRING BACK WEEKLY BIN DAY, simple to do just vote for us and down with socialist european union regulations, get labour out, get out of the EU, get rid of this french company and get us british workers for weekly bin men

    Report abuse

  9. 10
    Harlescott Salopian

    there should be a public enquiry now into the other options, they should publish all the cost benefit anaylsis and environmental impacts of the other solutions too, we demand to see why arent safer and greener options being looked at? Cheap skating with my childrens health is not acceptable, there are better technologies, better greener solutions, for starters higher recycling rates of up to 70% could easily be achieved in shropshire through going back to unlimited garden waste collections in sacks like we used to get and by recycling plastic which is a) 90% of my bin contents and b) the stuff which is nasty to burn in terms of pollution and produces a net CO2 contribution adding to global warming. Also by going back to unlimited textile collections like Shrewsbury & Atcham Council used to do, that is a huge easy quick win, i usd to have a good clear out every other month of old shoes and socks etc, its ALOT of the waste stream i reckon, this rationing of recycling is rediculous, and not helpful. I’d like to see them collecting tetra pak too like they do in Chester, as my daughter has allergies, we use the soya stuff which ONLY comes in the plastic cartons, i cant be the only one with alot of these to get rid off.

    This would solve half the problem, leaving a minimal residue which could be treated using MODERN CLEAN technology to recover metals and compostable fractions. if they want to cash in on the governments dash for ”green” eneergy they only need to talk to their neighbours in south shropshire who are doing some really innovative things with food waste, that would deal with a huge amount of it.

    (do these people every talk to each other?)

    So come on you cheap skates, dont dump a dirty chimney on me and my kids, spend the money on some decent recyclcing collection instead

    Report abuse

  10. 11
    Harlescott Salopian

    there should be a public enquiry now into the other options, they should publish all the cost benefit anaylsis and environmental impacts of the other solutions too, we demand to see why arent safer and greener options being looked at? Cheap skating with my childrens health is not acceptable, there are better technologies, better greener solutions, for starters higher recycling rates of up to 70% could easily be achieved in shropshire through going back to unlimited garden waste collections in sacks like we used to get and by recycling plastic which is a) 90% of my bin contents and b) the stuff which is nasty to burn in terms of pollution and produces a net CO2 contribution adding to global warming. Also by going back to unlimited textile collections like Shrewsbury & Atcham Council used to do, that is a huge easy quick win, i usd to have a good clear out every other month of old shoes and socks etc, its ALOT of the waste stream i reckon, this rationing of recycling is rediculous, and not helpful. I’d like to see them collecting tetra pak too like they do in Chester, as my daughter has allergies, we use the soya stuff which ONLY comes in the plastic cartons, i cant be the only one with alot of these to get rid off.

    This would solve half the problem, leaving a minimal residue which could be treated using MODERN CLEAN technology to recover metals and compostable fractions. if they want to cash in on the governments dash for ”green” eneergy they only need to talk to their neighbours in south shropshire who are doing some really innovative things with food waste, that would deal with a huge amount of it.

    (do these people every talk to each other?)

    So come on you cheap skates, dont dump a dirty chimney on me and my kids, spend the money on some decent recyclcing collection instead

    Report abuse

  11. 12
    Just do it

    Great idea. Modern building, energy from waste and not in Telford. Build it today and send our waste to it. We get there’s for landfill.

    Report abuse

  12. 13
    Joh nShenton

    good on them, they should blockade the place and protest, i for one would happily join them in scaling the chimney and chaining myself to it to stop it being built, its a health hazard same as a coal fired power plant or any other major combustion source, burning stuff gives of fumes, science fact, go and inhale from your cars tail pipe if you dont beleive me

    Report abuse

  13. 14
    peter from wem

    im against the idea as it will reduce recycling but i think the pollution concerns may be over egged, i mean obviosuly there is some pollution like dust and gases and stuff but so is a landfill site gassing right, so its both bad but well i dont know i just wish people would stop being so wasteful and the supermarkets overpackage things and use plastic when cardboard would be better

    Report abuse

  14. 15
    pw de villiers

    you are all misguided seriously its very safe to burn waste we have been doing it in holland since the war, and when i lived in london they had a municipal incinerator there too

    i think if it was a health risk surely you would have started to see some abnormalities in londons population by now surely?

    Also Japan has the highese life expectancy in the world and they burn everything

    Report abuse

  15. 16
    mike

    we dont want incineration here

    thats why it was stated so clearly in the local waste plan that there would be no incineration

    now the politicians have gone back on their word

    Report abuse

  16. 17
    Huw Peach

    Is incineration a SUSTAINABLE way of dealing with waste, pw de villiers?

    My understanding was that landfills are used for less than 10% of all waste in the Netherlands.

    Do you not think that we Brits ought to be catching up with Dutch recycling rates?

    The Dutch recycle 60% of their waste.

    That is double what we recycle here.

    Report abuse

  17. 18
    jon barret

    im glad these processors are raising this, its a stupid idea to pay more for reducing the volume of rubbish only too still bury it, yes thats right they still landfill the ash, which by now is toxic and has to go to a specialist landfill for hundreds of pounds per tonne, what an uneconomic, unsound, nonesense idea

    Report abuse

  18. 19
    MR J

    Im bored of this energy plant stuff now, its old news, we all know really its never going to get built so Im not even going to try and defend it no more, sorry for those of you who do want it, but it looks like its never going to built, those “sad” MP’s dont know what they are doing.

    Report abuse

  19. 20
    Joe K

    The link to the first group doesn’t take one to that group, but to something called ‘Safe Waste’ (and it’s not a home page, either).

    Report abuse



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