Demand for biomass power plant land sale inquiry
Wednesday 27th October 2010, 11:29AM BST.
A campaign group fighting a £5 million biomass power plant planned for south Shropshire has asked the police to investigate the process for selling land for the plant.
Members of the Bishop’s Castle Group have asked officers to investigate the tendering process at Bishop’s Castle Business Park.
Shropshire Council today said it believed it had followed the correct procedure.
But campaigners believe the decision by the council to sell the land to Bishop’s Castle Biomass Power Ltd to build the plant was made without adhering to its own guidelines. And they have claimed a further 42 expressions of interest were made in the site.
In a statement, the group said it was particularly concerned by the instructions for bids which were invited for “low rise and small scale” development in a “sensitive landscape setting”.
The deal was confirmed earlier this month by Shropshire Council’s cabinet.
The statement reads: “By no stretch of the imagination could the biomass proposal be considered to fit those requirements.
“Although most of the process has been shrouded in secrecy it emerged that there were 42 other expressions of interest.
“If those parties submitted proposals based on the council’s declared parameters then any party bidding in the belief or knowledge that they could ignore the restrictions would have significant advantage.
Councillor Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for economy and waste, said: “I am happy that the procedures followed by the council were legal and robust.”
Maria Wilkinson, spokeswoman for West Mercia Police, said if the group had written to police, they would received a response from the force in due course.
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