WILTSHIRE Council’s approval of planning permission for an 11km underground cable for the gasification plant, has left campaigners disappointed over the unanimous decision.
During a strategic planning meeting on Thursday 20th June, Wiltshire Council granted Northacre Renewable Energy permission to build the 11km underground cable, which will link the gasification plant to the national grid in Frome.
However, as 8km of the cable route is through Mendip District Council territory, the outcome is not yet certain for the waste company.
Representatives from the Westbury Gasification Action Group (WGAG), Margaret Cavanna, Harriet James, Dan Gmaj and Marie Hillcoat, as well as cllr Ian Cunningham, chair of the highways, planning and development committee at Westbury Town Council, were present.
WGAG campaigner, Dan Gmaj said, “We were unsurprised by the outcome. A unanimous decision to approve, was however, a genuine disappointment! The process on the day showed a clear predetermination by the committee of nine (one independent, one Lib Dem and seven Conservative councillors) to accept the case officer’s recommendations, regardless of the quality and level of opposing arguments.
“The Wiltshire Council process has, on the issue of the gasification plant for Westbury, simply been unfit for purpose! A waste of time, genuine human resources and the public money that funds it.
“Strategic planning in Mendip will shortly be faced with a decision that covers the seven kilometre section in Somerset. We await the outcome before considering our next steps to ensure that our communities are listened to!”
Cllr Ian Cunningham said. “I spoke at Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning meeting in Chippenham to reaffirm Westbury Town Council’s opposition to the cable.
“We were concerned about risks to archaeological sites which, in fairness, were partly addressed by an apparently robust approach from Wiltshire Council and the potential for environmental damage.
“I also noted that the need for an 11km connecting cable underlined Westbury Town Council’s view that the plant was in a far from ideal location. The cable is needed to operate the generating plant but despite some very well argued objections to the whole principle of the operation, in terms of both national and council policies by residents for renewable energy and waste handling, the councillors considered the cable in isolation and then followed the recommendation from the chair, with unanimous support.
“I reminded the committee that this was a danger of piecemeal applications which, whilst entirely within the rules, can often produce a whole that might not have been permitted.
“Had there been a single application for an ATT (gasification) plant together with an 11km cable, would the town council’s concerns over location have carried more weight?
“It is easy to accuse the town council of nimbyism but the reality is that the operation as a whole makes no sense in this location, whatever your views on the process.
“My personal view is that this is not “renewable” power as nothing is used again and that it ‘solves’ a problem by actually encouraging its cause [too much waste in the first place with insufficient recycling, particularly of plastic].
“Would there ever have been approval for a combined application for a mechanical and biological treatment plant (that makes the ‘fuel’ and has had the fly problems), with an ATT plant (to convert and burn it) and an 11Km cable to take the power to where it can be used?
“What might happen next is something that planners don’t like to consider and which they try to dismiss as “not part of the current application” but in the real world, we need to think more about these issues.
“One of the ironies here is that an argument used in favour of the ATT plant was that it might slightly reduce (although this is far from certain) traffic, as the output from the MBT (mechanical biological treatment) plant can now be burnt on site – but if the MBT site had not already been built, the arguments against bringing all the waste into our traffic-choked town would have been very strong.”
