WESTBURY Town councillors have said they are grateful to food company, Arla dairies, for their continued opposition to the proposed waste incinerator, although the company is objecting on different grounds to the town council.
Northacre Renewable Energy Ltd (NREL) won approval from Wiltshire Council for their plans to build a waste to energy incinerator in Westbury in June. Since then, there has been pressure for the Secretary of State to ‘call in’ the application for further scrutiny. The town awaits a decision from the recently-appointed Secretary of State, Michael Gove. If an enquiry is held, Westbury Town Council is preparing to make representation against the incinerator on behalf of the town.
At a recent town council meeting, cllr Mike Sutton said, “We understand the position of Arla in regard to the proposed incinerator and are comfortable with their stance. Although they do not have a fundamental objection to the building of the plant, as does the town council, their reasons for objecting are very similar to ours and supports a central point of our objections.
“That is that [Wiltshire Council’s] Strategic Planning Committee did not consider all the relevant objections and brushed over many in their desire to get the application approved and did not give the attention it should have to the points raised at the meeting by Arla concerning product taint.
“Although a different point to many we have made, it does once again highlight our comments that the committee gave undue preference to the applicants and scant regard to the many objectors. To that extent, we are grateful for their continued opposition.”
Gavin Devine, public affairs adviser for Arla Foods said, “Our objection is on the grounds that we believe the incinerator could have a material adverse impact on our business because of the risk of emissions that would force us to suspend operations to avoid any effect on our products. This could in turn impact on the dairy industry as a whole, due to Westbury’s unique role in balancing supply and demand for raw milk.
“In our view, these questions have not been properly considered through the planning process to date, which is why we are urging the Secretary of State to call in the application for detailed consideration.
“We speak regularly to Westbury Town Council and other stakeholders about the proposed incinerator and the steps we are taking to oppose it. As a company we have to concentrate on the effect this development might have on Arla Westbury which is why we are focused on the issues we have raised.”
Westbury Town Council recently set up a task and finish group to state their case against the building of the incinerator.
