WESTBURY residents are still being left in the dark with regards to the construction of the locally opposed incinerator despite the developers Northacre Renewable Energy Ltd (NREL) receiving planning permission on appeal a year ago in February 2023.
While NREL has declined to comment, there are currently no signs that construction has begun at the site. The controversial plans were firmly objected to by the town council, local people, 17 other local councils and the local MP, whose main concerns were of the potential health impacts on residents should the incinerator become operational.
Since the plans were approved on appeal, Westbury Town Council has since engaged with air quality experts and set up an incinerator monitoring group, which will take readings of air quality from various locations in the town to see what impact the incinerator will have to the air quality.
Local town councillor Mark Bailey, who is chair of the incinerator monitoring group, says that the town council has always felt that there were two avenues that could potentially stop the building of the incinerator, which could explain why no work has seemingly been done so far at the site.
“The first was economic,” he explained. “With the huge increase in interest rates in the last year it may be that the economic climate is not conducive to such a large, speculative, investment. The second was a possible change in legislation to make the incinerator unattractive to investors, and this route is looking more and more positive.
“Every day that building is delayed is a day closer to no Westbury incinerator!”
Lobbying
Local MP Andrew Murrison has been lobbying for changes to be made to legislation to make incinerators economically unviable via an ‘incinerator tax’ as well as calling for a moratorium of waste incinerators. He has been suggesting that incinerators should be included in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) earlier than the planned 2028 date – the ETS is a scheme where large industrial emitters of CO2 from burning fossil fuels are required to purchase permits to release CO2, effectively acting as a carbon tax.
He has also frequently pointed out to government ministers that England is currently projected to have excess incinerator capacity and that it will work against more responsible means of waste management.
Cllr Bailey continued, “In a recent press release Andrew Murrison shared, it was confirmed that ‘Defra officials are in the process of assessing residual waste treatment capacity needs’ and that ‘The government is clear that proposed developments must not result in overcapacity of energy from waste treatment at a national or local level.’ This is just what we wanted to hear as one of our arguments against the planning application was that it would result in overcapacity for incineration.
“The government has also confirmed that it is ‘committed to tackling the climate impacts of waste incineration’ and are working on expanding UK Emissions Trading Scheme to ‘cover fossil carbon emissions from waste incineration and energy from waste.’ This again could make the proposed incinerator unviable.
“We also take heart that the new Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is Steve Barclay, who also has an unwanted incinerator planned for his constituency, which he has been vocally opposing. It may well be that we will have a more sympathetic ear in this minister than we had in the past.
“There is no room for complacency and the town council continues to oppose the incinerator at every opportunity and to make preparations in case it does go ahead, to reduce its impacts on the environment and air quality, but the picture does seem a little brighter.”
NREL was approached by White Horse News for comment.
