David (St Dennis) takes on Goliath (SITA / Cornwall Council) in the High Court

Campaigners from St Dennis and the wider Mid Cornwall area are in London today for the start of a two-day High Court hearing (Section 288 challenge) to overturn the Secretary of State’s decision to grant planning permission for an incinerator with an unsustainable, annual throughput of 240,000 tonnes of waste at St Dennis.

It has been branded a "David versus Goliath" struggle and local people should be commended for the determined way in which they have raised funds to make the challenge.

I think that my good friend Pat Blanchard, the chairman of the St Dennis Incinerator Group, has summed it up well. She said: "The support of the community and work by so many individuals just illustrates how strongly people feel. We are not rich, with up-country barristers or second home owners, just ordinary people trying to do what we can to prevent a travesty."

I would like to wish the campaigners all the best. Through them, there may yet be time for Cornwall Council to develop a sustainable approach to waste management.

For information, the Western Morning News today reported that the incinerator would “burn 240,000 tons of non-recyclable household waste each year.” This is so, so untrue! The vast majority of the waste that would go to the plant could be recycled or composted.