We stand by Westbury.

Local parish and town councils join fight to stop waste incinerator.

TOWN and parish councils across the area have joined local people and Westbury Town Council to object to Northacre Renewable Energy Ltd’s (NREL) new plan for an ‘energy from waste’ plant to be built in the town. 

The consultation period ended last week, with the planning authority, Wiltshire Council, due to make its decision at the end of November.

Westbury Town Council rubber-stamped their objections to the incinerator in a virtual meeting held the evening before the deadline day.

Amongst the other local town and parish councils who objected to the plans were Bradford-on-Avon Town Council, Trowbridge Town Council, Frome Town Council, Warminster Town Council, North Bradley Parish Council, Heywood Parish Council and Bratton Parish Council. See their comments on pages 2, 3, 5 and 6.

Concerns

Concerns were raised about a wide range of issues including the increased number of HGV vehicles moving through the area 24 hours-a-day and the associated pollution; the harmful emissions produced by the incinerator; the production of greenhouse gases; the close proximity to new housing estates and local schools; and its visual impact including the view from the White Horse.

Councils also questioned the need for another incinerator in the area, with one already operating in Avonmouth and Swindon, and were concerned about its impact on local  Climate Emergency declarations saying priority should be given to reducing waste, rather than building incinerators to burn it.

‘Appalling proposal’

As the deadline for comments was reached, 512 representation letters had been submitted to Wiltshire Council. Local MP, Andrew Murrison said that the final tally could be as many as 1,500, as the council continues to read and process all the submissions. 

Andrew Murrison MP said, “I can’t remember the last time a planning application had so many people formally submitting objections. I hope the planners take note and throw this appalling proposal out.”

Local resident and businessman, Philip Harcourt said, “I am concerned that people’s objections are not being put up on the Wiltshire planning portal quickly enough, meaning that the public doesn’t get to see them before they have to submit their own.  Even Wiltshire Council is having problems – if you click on the Highways consultation response you get a response on drainage.

 “It is an absolute travesty that delays by Wiltshire Council planners means that it will take weeks for all the objections to be loaded online.  Despite this, Wiltshire Council has refused to extend the period, when they were asked to do so.”

At a full meeting of Westbury Town Council, held on Monday 21st September, councillors approved their draft list of objections from a previous meeting. Following a request from cllr Ian Cunningham, councillors agreed to ‘tidy up’ his previous additions. Cllr Gordon King, who is also a Wiltshire councillor, urged the council to submit their objections as early as possible the following day – the deadline for comments to Wiltshire Council.

Objections

Westbury Town Council’s objections were long and detailed and were based on the following points:-

• Insufficient time to pursue, take in or evaluate 237 statements and documents 

• Failure to provide a Biodiversity & Geodiversity site analysis 

• Failure  to provide detail of the technology and  impact analysis 

• Refused to provide precise detail of where they will source waste by; type, quality, composition, transport arrangements 

• Failure to take into account increased traffic

• Failure to take sufficient account of impact on air quality

• Failure to assess impact of noise, especially at night.

• Consideration of the lifetime of this plant 

• Wiltshire Council has declared a climate emergency and should be reminded of their commitment.

Added to the statement was cllr Cunningham’s points, reworded as: “Carbon offset calculations based on current electricity generation methods do not allow for expected improvements in 10, 15, 20 years’ time. We have proposed nuclera plants (carbon free) and have already seen a massive increase in renewables which there’s no particular reason to assume will not continue,

“Although currently too much waste still goes to landfill and there has been little investment in technologies such as methane capture at landfill sites, it should not be assumed that there will be no improvements over the long life of this plant. This makes the future carbon savings very doubtful as electricity becomes cleaner and our waste production is reduced at source with more recycling taking place etc, whilst the C02 output of this plant is guaranteed and will never reduce.

“Wiltshire Council has declared a climate emergency and therefore should be looking at higher levels of recycling with waste not being burnt at all but truly recycled. Burning it is just one step off the bottom of the waste hierarchy and Wiltshire Council should be mindful of their commitment.”