Waste arrives at the St Dennis incinerator

The delivery of “black bag” waste to the incinerator at St Dennis has commenced. We will soon be seeing the “smoke” coming out of the two chimneys, which now dominate this part of Clay Country, as they start to test the workings of the plant.

This announcement was all over the news today and, as someone who has been involved in the opposition to the incinerator for around a decade, it felt like the end of a very long journey.

Among the people interviewed today was Ken Rickard who rightly made the point that local campaigners (who have opposed the incinerator) would now be monitoring the operation of the plant to ensure that it works as well as promised.

Speaking for myself, I am proud of the role that I played in opposing the incinerator at the planning application stage and then at the Planning Inquiry which followed. It remains my view that the plant was ill-conceived and is oversized; that there were better options and the incinerator will dampen down efforts to increase recycling; and that decision-makers at the County Council deliberately dumped the facility on the communities of the China Clay Area – an unforgivable sin in my eyes.