St Dennis Public Meeting

On Friday (25th September), Fred Greenslade, John Wood and I organised a public meeting at St Dennis in association with St Dennis Against Incineration and the Parish Council.

The meeting was primarily to inform people about what was likely to happen over the next few months, now that SITA had appealed against the refusal of their application for an incinerator in this area.

Julian German (the cabinet member for Waste) and Corporate Director Tom Flanagan both started the meeting by assuring local people that the Council will robustly defend the appeal.

The meeting covered the content of the Integrated Waste Management Contract, the appeal (which will probably be through a Public Inquiry scheduled no later than March/April 2010), the potential outcomes of the appeal and the work of the Council’s new Waste Advisory Panel to look at all of the options available for dealing with waste in Cornwall.

We also made sure that people were aware of the limited extent to which the contract could be varied without falling foul of procurement and contract rules. But Fred, John and I pledged that we would do everything in our power to make sure that all options around the termination of the Contract were also properly investigated and considered.

I can also report that Cornwall Council has agreed to meet with representatives of the communities of St Dennis and Treviscoe in order to explore how the Council can assist local people and organisations in presenting their views to the Public Inquiry. This meeting will be organised in the near-future.