Saturday 26 January 2008

Public Inquiry needed on incinerator plans


This week, I was one of three councillors from Restormel Borough Council who publicly re-stated calls for a Public Inquiry into the construction of a large waste to energy plant (incinerator) in Mid Cornwall.

At a Full Council meeting in 2006, Cllr Fred Greenslade (Lib Dem – Rock Ward), John Wood (Independent - Rock Ward) and I successfully persuaded Restormel councillors to overwhelmingly back our calls for a Public Inquiry, when the waste management contract was being agreed between the County Council and SITA.

Though the Government has, so far, failed to act on the calls of the Borough Council and others, this remains the view of Restormel.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we viewed the display organised by SITA at St Dennis Working Mens’ Club which set out more detail on the incinerator that they wish to construct near the village of St Dennis.

We saw nothing at the display which allayed our concerns about the consequences of how Cornwall County Council and SITA plan to deal with Cornwall’s waste and issued the following statement:

“We do not accept that a single centralised incinerator is the appropriate way to deal with Cornwall’s domestic waste or the manner in which the China Clay Area was identified as the site for the incinerator.

“It remains our view that waste should be dealt with as close as possible to where it arises and should not be transported over very long distances to a single site in the Clay Area.

“The people of St Dennis and the Clay Area as a whole deserve the right to put their concerns at a Public Inquiry.”

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