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Joy as burner bid is binned
Tuesday 8th December 2009, 12:30PM GMT.
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Thousands of campaigners were celebrating today after winning their battle against controversial plans for an incinerator in Telford.
Planners last night unanimously threw out the Sita UK scheme for the waste plant saying it was in the wrong place and would ruin the landscape.
The proposals were for an energy-from-waste plant to run 24 hours, seven days a week, next to the Granville landfill site at Redhill.
The incinerator would have dealt with 62,000 tonnes of waste.
More than 3,000 people signed a petition put together by protest group Telford Pain and the council also received 250 individual objections from residents.
Councillors unanimously voted against the plans during last night’s meeting of Telford & Wrekin plans board.
Councillor Gill Green said: “I took the opportunity to drive around the site and there are a lot of other places it could go. It’s simply the wrong plan in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Ecological
Councillor Veronica Fletcher added: “Everything will be put into that incinerator and burnt and we don’t know what’s going to go into it and I’m concerned that there will be toxins in it. They are not looking at this in an ecological way.”
The plant was expected to burn domestic waste, but on turning down the application Councillor Rosemary Chaplin said Telford residents must look at other ways to dispose of waste.
Councillors refused the application on the grounds that it was on a green network site, would be visually harmful to the area and not in keeping with the council’s plans to reduce waste.
The board also agreed Sita UK failed to demonstrate there were no alternative sites.
After the meeting Stephen Pessall, co-founder of Telford Pain, said: “We are extremely pleased as a group.
A lot of people have been campaigning on this for over 12 months and what we were saying was picked up in the report and by councillors.
“Thousands of people have won tonight.”
Objections were also received from Friends of the Earth, five parish councils and Mark Pritchard, Wrekin MP, and David Wright, Telford MP.
By Jason Lavan
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How can it be in the wrong place when it is adjacent to a site that already deals with rubbish? What is it about this landscape that makes it so special? Its not like its within an AONB. I’ve not read the decision notice or report yet but it strikes me as another case of the council refusing an application despite there being no material planning considerations for them to do so, just like the coal mine. I epect Sita to appeal and to win and then be awarded costs against the council.
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This means jot, its the now likely planning appeal which will determine whether it goes ahead or not. Sita UK vs TWC or shall I say a £600m company vs a local authority with little cash thats being forced to cut services. Would it be rude to mention at this point the £550k the authority spent on losing the recent open cast mine appeal
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The best site for it would be where Buildwas power station is. Once the power station has been closed down, an incinerator would be perfect for the site. And, if the railway link is maintained, waste from other regions could be brought by freight train, thus reducing the carbon footprint further still.
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A great success for eco-warriors. Now the only thing left for SITA to do is make the hole bigger so they can dump more rubbish in and make no electricity what so ever..
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they’ll appeal
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I don’t think the power station site would be the best location. The prevailing winds would blow the emissions over a wide swathe of Telford. The best location is near Granville where the winds would likely blow over a much more rural area. It may not be perfect but would impact less people.
But what does it matter when we can continue throwing all our rubbish into a big hole in the ground.
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nimbyism wins the day, but at least generations won’t be affected by the alleged poisons in the air. This turn down was nothing more than all parties doing what they appear to be popular because of the pending general election. An incinerator will be built, sita will just wait until after the general election has been run and it will sail through. Telford Pain, well done, will they be as active next time round, oe hit wonders I feel.
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The landfill sites are full so lets carry on burying our waste in the ground then shall we ?.
Would these protesters be happy to bury their waste in their own gardens ?
Perhaps we should open a few more open-cast coal mines to make room for all this waste ?.
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the buildwas power station would be the worst possible site! Right in the heritage site and blow away any changes of having a proper steam train running from Telford to the world heritage site! Plus its in a valley and all the toxins would just stay trapped in the air!
I nuclear site would do well there though – at least there would be less radioactive waste than now
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