OPPONENTS of the controversial Westbury incinerator are celebrating after a dramatic Wiltshire Council U-turn.
In a shock decision, the council’s strategic planning committee voted last Wednesday to defer the application until the summer, saying they do not have all the facts.
Local MP, Andrew Murrison, welcomed the decision saying it would have been ‘imprudent’ of the committee to give the go ahead to an incinerator which could end up being contrary to Government policy.
He said the issue was of ‘grave importance’ and it would have been the wrong decision to dump an ‘unwanted, unrequired, overcapacity’ incinerator on the local community.
Local campaign group WGAG/No Westbury Incinerator said, “After fighting our campaign for more than four years we can see that the councillors are now listening. In July, the committee will be asked again to listen to their electorate, to the 19 town and parish councils who objected to the incinerator and they should refuse…and finally put a stop to this monstrous incinerator.”
Wiltshire councillors Gordon and Carole King said, “The outcome of the strategic planning committee was a tremendous result for those of us who fought for it and especially for Westbury. Whilst this is just an interim decision…it does provide Westbury with a stay and provides us with time to collect our ideas and arguments and fight for a refusal.”
Westbury town councillor, Mike Sutton, said he was delighted at the decision. “It has been a very long process to get to this stage,” he said, “but it says so much about the spirit of the people of Westbury that they have battled through, despite so many setbacks and disappointments and it makes one feel proud to be a member of this community.”
The strategic planning committee voted for the deferral, saying there have been ‘material changes’ since the plans were previously approved nine months ago.
The application, by Northacre Renewable Energy, was initially given planning permission last June, despite massive opposition, with 19 local parish councils and over 2,000 people objecting – more than had opposed any other application in Wiltshire Council’s history.
The approval, though, was subject to the application not being ‘called in’ by the Government’s minister for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove MP. Last month, the minister refused to call in the plans and sent the application back to Wiltshire Council.
Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning committee met last Wednesday, 20th April, and were expected to rubber stamp the application, but a series of impassioned speakers persuaded the committee to think again.
Cllr Howard Greenman, chair of the committee, proposed a deferral, based on new information that wasn’t available last June, saying the Government’s consultation on waste could be a ‘game changer’.
The vote was carried and the application will now come back to the committee at the end of July.
Local campaigners, though, are warning that there is still work to do.
“It was a good outcome, but this does not mean that we should stop, we must continue to demonstrate our commitment to ‘seeing off’ this application,” said Westbury mayor, cllr Sheila Kimmins.
Westbury councillor Mike Sutton added, “Like so many others, I was delighted at the decision, but we all need to remember that at this stage it is a deferral and not rejection, but it is a step in the right direction.”
