WESTBURY councillors have submitted a nine-page response to the Environment Agency’s consultation on the controversial waste incinerator plan for the town. They have also written to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and local MP, Andrew Murrison, in “one last push” to stop the plans being agreed.
Highways, planning and development members voted unanimously in favour of sending the response and the letters, at their latest meeting. The Environment Agency impact assessment consultation was extended until 21st February,
Committee chair, cllr Ian Cunningham explained, “We set up a task and finish group to respond by the deadline, so the group has been working hard.
“Our document touches on a number of areas of concern which we believe fit with the Environment Agency’s list of areas on which we can comment.”
He passed on particular thanks to cllr Gordon King, saying he had spent a lot of time putting together the information gathered by the working group.
Cllr Gordon King also thanked other town councillors for working together on the project. He said. “I’d like to thank Jane Russ for her sterling work in finding out about the evidence on our behalf, Sheila Kimmins for the fantastic work she did putting together the flood risk and water use parts, Mike Kettlety for the work he did on transport arrangements and Ian Cunningham for the work that he did on pollution and air quality.
“I simply tied all these things together in our final report which is offered for further updates, or adoption for immediate sending to the Environment Agency,”
Presenting the proposed letter to Andrew Murrison MP, cllr Jane Russ, said, “We all know what the issues are and the main reason for writing to him was to get him to do one last push.”
She quoted from the letter, “Westbury Town Council now ask you for one more push against the proposed development by calling it in as a matter of urgency to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick.”
“It’s extremely important we send it in as soon as we can,” said cllr Russ. “I’ve outlined the base issues about it – we all know what they are. Wiltshire Council are never going to meet their zero carbon date of 2030 putting things like this into the environment for them to belch out the Co2s and things of that type.
“There has been a case where the health implications of pollution has been marked by courts and that has to be stated too, and good luck to Wiltshire trying to get this through. The evidence is so enormously against it and there are plenty of facilities within easy reach if they insist on using incinerators, but in Westbury we don’t need to have one here.”
Presenting the proposed letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, cllr Ian Cunningham said, “It’s a bit of a punt I thought we could make. We have a Prime Minister who has all kinds of ambitious 10 point plans for green industrial resolution, so I thought we might write to say that we declared a climate emergency and Wiltshire declared one and we have a very controversial waste to gasification plan which was opposed strongly by many in the town and turned down by Wiltshire Council.
Quoting from the letter he said, “The plant wasn’t built, but now we have a much larger plant, more polluting moving grate technology that had a remarkable 2,000 objections to the local planning authority.
“We’re very concerned that this is not a truly green technology as it produces large quantities of carbon dioxide and the applicant’s calculations suggest offsets of enormous amounts of Co2 based on outdated carbon estimates for electricity generation, assumptions that initiatives like yours will make no green improvements over the 25-year life of the plant and that other initiatives to reduce waste at source, remove plastic etc will have no effect.
“We would suggest that a direct intervention to stop this plant would make a very clear public demonstration of your real support for true green industries over spurious pseudo-green carbon and pollutant spewing technology of yesteryear excused by doubtful manipulative maths.
“We are sure that you would have the strong support of our local MP, Dr Andrew Murrison, who has repeatedly stated his complete opposition to the project. It would also be an opportunity to show your support for the wishes of a small community which will otherwise have this plant placed in a very inappropriate location close to the heart of town
“We would also draw your attention to the large number of lorries delivering waste to this plant, particularly as Westbury has no appropriate road access and is the only settlement of any size that has the primary A350 running through its centre, with a resultant long-standing air quality management zone that is highly anomalous in otherwise relatively clean, rural Wiltshire.”
Cllr Mike Sutton said, ”I think it’s a good idea to write to our Prime Minister,” and quipped, “It’s always best to take advantage of a man whose roots are vested in ordinary people – he’ll be well aware of our situation as a local community.”
Cllr Sutton continued, “I’m also heartened by the fact having declared we’re the world leaders in green technology against the planet changing I’m sure he’ll react in a different way than he did to the Cumbrians writing to hm about a coal mine which was in flagrant breech of his green credentials, so you can see I’m full of hope! Hopefully this may bear more fruit.”
Cllr Gordon King said, “I’m wholly in favour of the sending of this letter – I did notice the Sunday paper that stated ‘Bonkers Boris’ has come to a bit of his senses and realised that quite a lot of what is going on is not consistent with his target of net zero carbon by 2050, so he has asked for a wholesale review of a umber of aspects of energy policy, particularly including the future of incineration in the UK, so this is a timely reminder for him. I hope he can rise to the occasion.”
And cllr Mike Kettlety joked, “Councillors may recall our esteemed Prime Minister once laid down in front of the bulldozers, perhaps he’ll do the same for us!”
