ANTI-incinerator campaign group WGAG has welcomed the news that Arla, which runs Westbury Dairies next door to the proposed incinerator, has submitted a formal objection to the plan.
The group say it adds significant weight to the growing concerns about the incinerator.
Campaigner, Zee Mann, said, “Arla, the largest employer in Westbury with over 250 staff, have opposed the application to build an incinerator immediately next door to their factory. Westbury is the centre of butter manufacturing in the UK making the world famous brands, Anchor and Lurpak.
“Thanks to everyone who contacted Arla to let them know there are so many valid concerns for the town and their business over the incinerator application. Hundreds of people work for Arla and thousands buy their products in good faith. They have a reputation for making high quality food.
“Clean air is vital for the Arla factory to operate successfully in Westbury. The White Horse appears on Anchor butter – it reassures their customers that the butter is made in a rural location.”
In a piece submitted to White Horse News, WGAG say,
Rubbish and Milk
Floating over the application by Northacre Renewable Energy Limited to build a much larger incinerator is a question.
How is an incinerator that would burn over 200,000 tonnes of waste a year suitable for what many thought of as a trading estate?
A milk processing factory started on the Northacre site in 2002, years before a Mechanical and Biological Treatment plant (where waste is sorted and processed into SRF or solid recovered fuel for burning) was given permission by Wiltshire Council.
In 2019 the council again gave permission for a type of incinerator to be built next door to Arla. How can two such differing industrial processes be neighbours? One making pure food, the other burning waste for fuel?
A bit of history
The Hills site was originally designated as a Household Waste Facility – somewhere to take recycling. Over time applications to change the use of the site have been approved by Wiltshire Council and extra land has been purchased. In 2021 the latest is for a bottom grate incinerator that is 50% bigger in scale.
Wiltshire Council is faced with deciding to reject or approve an incinerator that will bring in up to 243, 000 tonnes of mostly commercial and industrial waste into the town and onto the Northacre estate.
Zee Mann says, “The 2,000 plus objections to the proposed incinerator by the public are full of evidence and reasons why Westbury is not the place for an incinerator. Burning waste does not solve the problem of waste in the first place. The pay off from burning waste for energy is for the company not the public or the climate.”
Where do you work?
Northacre Renewable Energy have promised that there would be up to 40 permanent jobs in Westbury if the incinerator is built. Is that a good number? More than 40 people are employed in Westbury Lidl, Aldi, Tesco Express and Morrisons together! Arla as the largest employer in the town employs 250 people. The threat of closure of the dairy due to the impact of the incinerator on their reputation is all too real.
Arla have written, “As a farmer-owned cooperative any financial harm to our business would adversely affect our farmers, 2,200 of whom are in Great Britain, and could shape decisions we make in future about investment in the facility, relative to other locations. There is the potential that, over time, the dairy could become unviable.”
What effect would a big incinerator have on the other businesses that run on the trading estate?
Greatly increased traffic through the only access and exit for HGVs could affect the site. HGVs entering and exiting Northacre to feed the incinerator could be as many as one per minute at peak hour. Result – severe congestion in the area.
What do the people of Westbury and Wiltshire want?
For one of the biggest employers in the town to move away to keep its reputation for high quality food intact, Wiltshire Council have to refuse permission for an incinerator that far from improving the town and the long term economic welfare of its inhabitants may drive business away.
