WESTBURY Town Council has agreed to erect more anti-incinerator banners around the town as a way to reaffirm the council’s commitment to residents that they are doing everything in their power to put a halt to the construction of the planned waste incinerator.
The town council also hope that the banners will help capture the community spirit that has united Westbury in opposition to the proposed incinerator.
Cllr Mark Bailey, who introduced the motion at the recent annual meeting of the Westbury Town Council said, “I think it is really important that the council are seen to be in opposition, as a lot of our work goes on behind the scenes and this would be a good way to physically show our opposition.
“I think some people may be under the impression that this application has just gone away as a result of the deferral by the planning committee of Wiltshire Council, but that is not the case.”
The incinerator application, which was initially approved by Wiltshire Council last June, was put back to the strategic planning committee following the government Minister for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove MP, deciding to not ‘call-in’ the application for further review, claiming he prefer decisions to be made locally.
Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning committee voted for the deferral, saying there have been ‘material changes’ since the plans were previously approved and a decision is not expected to take place until July. Westbury Town Council has opposed the application since the beginning of the application.
Cllr Dean said, “I have attended a few meetings recently where a selection of members of the public were wrongly under the impression that this council is not doing their utmost to oppose this application and this will surely counter that.
“I think, as cllr Bailey rightly said, that a lot of people think that the deferral means the application will go away, when of course it hasn’t – it is simply a deferral of the decision and no matters were settled at all.
“That being said, one of the problems we are faced with is that planning decisions are not a democratic process; it doesn’t matter how many people oppose the application, we actually need sound planning reasons that will sway the planning panel.”
Cllr Mike Sutton added, “I was fifty/fifty with this idea initially but I now see it as something we should do. I take cllr Dean’s points entirely; this doesn’t affect the planning process in any way, however I think it does give a lot of potency to the community spirit that has risen in Westbury and the sense of people taking charge of their town.
“I think if people have the feeling that both the town council and the town are still fighting on their behalf, although it has no positive result in terms of a decision, it definitely does build the community spirit. Hopefully this will help people feel listened to.”
Cllr Ward Jones summed up the feeling of the council by saying, “Throughout this whole process we have heard from so many people that oppose this application – I am yet to hear from anyone at all (other than Hills) fighting for the plans to go through, and I think that says it all.”
