WARMINSTER Town Council, who had also objected to the previous plan for a gasification plant in Westbury, objected to the latest plans.
In making their decision, councillors considered the following points:-
1.There will be a substantial increase in HGV traffic on A36. The application proposes bringing in 243,000 tonnes of waste per annum by road into Westbury from a two-hour drive time radius i.e. from other local authorities. At present up to 90,000 tonnes of waste goes to the MBT plant in Westbury, so the HGV tonnage on local roads would almost treble as soon as the plant was built.
HGVs from the south will all pass Warminster affecting people living near the A36, particularly in the new houses on the WUE. HGVs will have to go through the middle of Westbury to get to the plant – there is no alternative route. The Air Quality levels on Warminster Road and Haynes Road, Westbury, are already frequently more than 1.5 times the legal limit for NOx.
The costs for the road maintenance and potential health costs will fall on Wiltshire tax payers.
2. The carbon assessment claims that the incinerator would generate renewable energy which is incorrect. Waste going to the plant will include fossil-based carbon materials such as plastic.
The application does not consider other disposal methods. The carbon assessment only compares the carbon impact of incineration against the carbon impact of landfill. As government and Wiltshire Council policy is to reduce landfill, this is an incorrect comparison and no evidence is given for this assertion. A thorough carbon assessment should consider improved recycling and composting rates, the use of anaerobic digesters (e.g. the existing facility at Warminster) and the subsequent reduction in available waste for incineration.
3. Most of Wiltshire’s household waste is already incinerated in other incinerators. There are incinerators at Avonmouth, Javelin Park (on M5 near Gloucester) and Marchwood, Southampton. Planning permission has already been granted for an incinerator at South Marston, Swindon, and Wiltshire already uses Lakeside EfW at Slough for disposal of waste.
4. When the wind is in the North the plume from the 75m stack will be carried straight onto Upton Scudamore (with Warminster next stop). The top of the stack is on the same contour as Upton Scudamore – approx 140m above sea level, the distance is 4k. The plume modelling given by the applicant only considers the prevailing SW wind.
5. Most incinerators are built near motorways or near the sea, not on the edges of communities with several schools and new housing estates.