Incinerator Planning Meeting Postponed...

..until Wednesday 1st September at 2pm.

The letters inviting members of the public to speak were only posted yesterday and therefore anyone applying was told they had missed the deadline.

So - yet more time wasted for people who are trying to scrutinise this very important decision in their own time and at their own expense!

Venue for the meeting is still Meole Brace School, Longden Road, Shrewsbury SY3 9DW.

Steve's trip to Chineham

Anti-incinerator protestor gatecrashes councillors’ Hampshire burner trip - on his bicycle!

Members of Shropshire Council's Strategic Planning Committee on a guided tour of Veolia’s incinerator in Chineham on Monday 9th July, were surprised to be joined by an extra member of their party - Steve Boulding, pictured on the left.

For some time, Safe Waste in Shropshire has suspected that visitors to the incinerator get a kind of ‘Royal Visit’ – all fresh paint and flowers rather than noise, fumes and lorries. In order to find out, Safe Waste in Shropshire supporter, Steve Boulding, got on his bike, literally, and managed to slip through the incinerator's front gate and talk his way onto the tour – in Chineham.

Steve, who is in his 60s, and was Green parliamentary candidate for North Shropshire back in May, cycled the 12 miles from his home in N Shropshire to Shrewsbury Station, then again from Basingstoke to Chineham, repeating it all for the return trip – a 40 mile cycle in order to find out for us all just what councillors get to see and hear when they visit Veolia’s ‘flagship’ incinerator.

Travel note - Wrexham and Shropshire trains are particularly cycle-friendly and comfortable!
This is Steve’s account of the tour:

‘The five Shropshire councillors, Arthur Walpole, Tudor Bebb, David Evans, Karen Calder and Stuart West. were accompanied by three Council officers including Ian Kilby, Head of Development Management and Malcolm Bell, Malcolm Bell, Head of Planning and Development Control and we were all shown a slick video presentation and an edited guided tour.

Andy MacQueen of Veolia ES, Hampshire seemed proud of his "high-tech power station" (below, right) but made many misleading and inaccurate comments about the whole waste process.

He stated that their filters (which are apparently renewed only every ten years or so), remove ALL particles from the flue gases before discharge. When I asked him about pm 2.5's and below, i.e. the particularly dangerous ones, he asked "Ah, but how do you measure them?" I said that I thought, as the engineer, he might know the answer to that one! Veolia ES Shropshire was claiming to be monitoring PM2.5s at Sundorne Sports village in 2008.

Half of the feedstock comes from south and west Hampshire because “Portsmouth and Southampton couldn't cope” (and some from outside the county) and that "a percentage" was commercial and a "very small percentage" industrial, including such items as “garage waste”. He acknowledged that as households compost and recycle more, that other waste streams – commercial and industrial - will make up a bigger percentage of feedstock. ‘

At no time was the fact that waste figures are falling mentioned, or that the Hampshire incinerators recently applied to the Environment Agency to burn more waste than their permits originally allowed. The Veolia ES website laments that the UK “only recycles 30% of waste’ – a somewhat misleading statement since as at 2009 the figure was already 38.8% (that’s all kinds of waste) and it continues to rise.

When one of the councillors remarked that they expected more noise from the plant, Mr MacQueen “remembered” that there was some maintenance going on and the plant was operating at a fraction of its normal capacity. Previous showcase Shropshire visits to the incinerator have also coincided with “maintenance”. We wondered which process/malfunction had produced the pronounced dent in the pipework (see photo on left, above)

He seemed to regard the lime residue resulting from the de-acidification of the flue gases, as an inert and safe product (no mention of what else it might contain) and said it is trucked elsewhere. He referred to bottom ash as "aggregate residue", saying it was used "in road building and construction". In fact foamed concrete containing bottom ash, whatever you choose to call it, is currently banned by the Highways Agency and other contractors because of its unstable nature.

Although the glossy brochure given to the councillors contains the familiar line which seems to form part of every media report about the incinerator, "…provides 7MW of electricity, enough to meet the electricity demand of 10,000 local homes", Mr MacQueen made no claims as to how much electricity is actually produced, merely confirming that it is sold to the National Grid.

I had to own up to the councillors that I hadn't actually cycled all the way from Shropshire that morning, Nonetheless, I think some of them were impressed by my cheek!

While I was outside awaiting the councillors, I counted fourteen refuse trucks going in between approx. 1100 and 1145, at which point, a security man took up position outside and started intercepting trucks and telling them to turn round and come back later. Ten minutes later, the councillors' coach arrived. Curious....’

Miriam Walton, secretary of Safe Waste in Shropshire commented:

‘We are very proud of Steve’s effort which confirms just what kind of flawed and incomplete information the councillors are being given to make this vital decision which will effect Shropshire people’s finances and health for the next quarter-century.

The Chair of Chineham Parish Council, Chris Tomblin, had urged our councillors to take a route through Chineham which would let them see the real visual impact of the incinerator (see photo on the right). He also sent a list of comments and questions about the incinerator which we passed on to Malcolm Bell and the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee several days before the trip, Steve reported that they were ignored, as were another set of questions provided to Mr Bell by campaigner Nick Hall about the operation of the incinerator.

We have also been shocked to learn that some local residents in Harlescott have taken Veolia’s repeated claims about the electricity generated by the incinerator to mean that they will get free power. They will not, and we urge the local media to correct this misapprehension.’

Planning Officers recommend the Battlefield incinerator to be passed

Planning officers have released their assessment of Veolia's planning application for the incinerator. They have recommended that the application should be accepted.

They have also recommended that the application be sent to the Government Office of the West Midlands as it is 'not fully consistent with the Waste Local Plan'.

This comes as little surprise to anyone. The application will be heard on Monday 26 July at 2pm at Meole Brace School, Shrewsbury. We strongly recommend people to try and attend this meeting even if it is only beforehand outside to demonstrate the strength of feeling against the incinerator.

Shropshire Star has put the news on the front page today with brief comments from Safe Waste in Shropshire. The planners' report is flawed and we will strongly challenge it. More news about this in due course!

There are some good comments on the Shropshire Star's web page at:

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2010/07/12/shropshire-council-backs-shrewsbury-incinerator

Here is ours:

Veolia claims that with the incinerator, only 5% of waste will go to landfill. So what will they do with the 25% left as ash? Even after metal extraction that is a lot of landfill. Some ash is too toxic for 'normal' landfill so it will get trucked off to special sites - in lorries past people's homes. Who trusts Veolia not to make mistakes with this?

Every time the Shropshire Star mentions the incinerator it repeats Veolia's claim that the incinerator will 'generate enough electricity to power 10,000' homes'. This has led some people to believe this means free electricity for homes near the incinerator. Think again! It means big money for Veolia and will not in any way affect local electricity bills.

The incinerator is a licence to print money - for Veolia. The planners have advised passing it on old and faulty figures which paint a picture of waste rising and landfill costing the earth.

Remember: an incinerator is actually a 'giant landfill in the sky'. It doesn't magic away our waste; it burns it and it goes up in the air - and comes down again in the form of toxic material, most of it invisible, on you, your children, your gardens, fields, animals. The tiny particulates in the 'plume' enter your bloodstream via your lungs and the very young and the vulnerable will be the first to suffer. Many credible studies have shown this but our elected representatives and Quangos prefer to pretend that this isn't the case. Is anyone surprised that the Environment Agency considers incineration to be safe when its pension fund is known to have investments in Veolia?

Do we really want to take this risk when cheaper, safer alternatives exist to incineration (and landfill)?

Question: why have some Shropshire Council officials been telling people that there are 'problems' with the Ludlow anaerobic digester? It couldn't be anything to do with the clause in the Waste contract that obliges Shropshire Council to support Veolia's planning application for an incinerator, could it? Surely not?

Many past developments have caused those who came after to curse those who passed them: asbestos, smoking, high-rise developments. Those who have the power of 'life and death' over Shropshire residents must think long and hard about their decision on 26th July if they wish to avoid leaving a deadly and expensive legacy for their electors and their electors' children.

Incinerator Hearing Date set for Monday 26 July at 2pm

The Strategic Planning Group will be deciding on the planning application for the proposed Battlefield Incinerator on Monday 26 July - keeping up a noble tradition of any developments taking place during holidays - at Meole Brace School, Longden Road Shrewsbury at 2pm.

The councillors will visit the Chineham incinerator on Monday 12th July. This is the trip when everything looks nice and shiny and quiet, no ash anywhere and free Veolia sandwiches are handed round.

If anyone is interested in visiting Chinehaml that day to see what the councillors see i.e. check on incinerator conditions, what the councillors get shown outside the complex i.e. what views of the incinerator etc. this would be useful Please let us know if you are interested; but bring your own sandwiches as I don't think that we're invited. As on our last Chineham trip there should be some local residents who will be happy to talk to us.

The planners will issue their report to the Committee on 9th July and it will be clear from this what they are recommending. We are ready to object to it if necessary and rebut any claims that we can.
Whatever the decision, it is certain not to be the end of the story as the application may be 'called in' to the Government Office of the West Midlands anyway. If it is refused, Veolia will appeal.

Safe Waste in Shropshire - contact details on the panel on the right of this page.



Members of Safe Waste in Shropshire viewing the Chineham incinerator in 2008. Note its immense size and ugly construction - and this is 'state of the art' - according to Veolia!