Sponsored by
'Oppose incinerator plans' - say officers
By Susannah Berry
PLANNING officers at Harrogate Borough Council have advised councillors to lodge a formal objection to a waste company’s proposed plan to burn rubbish near Tockwith.
BCB Environmental wants to build an 18m thermal treatment plant to burn waste on the Marston Moor Business Park it claims will provide enough electricity to power 10,000 homes.
But, in a report to Harrogate borough councillors, planning officers have expressed concern over the proposed plant’s potential noise, operating hours, odour, air quality and traffic generation.
They have recommended councillors lodge an objection at a Harrogate planning meeting next Thursday. The objection will be passed onto decision-makers at North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC).
Harrogate Borough councillor John Savage, who represents Tockwith, has supported the planning officers' recommendation to object to BCB’s plans.
He said: “North Yorkshire County Council has already received many hundreds of letters of objection to this proposal.
"This facility would be less than half a mile west of a large housing area. It is designed to process 60,000 tonnes of waste per year and would be permitted to emit pollutants like ammonia and microparticles in quantities measured in tons per year as well as over 100 pounds of mercury.
“This would be a round-the-clock business, seven-days-a-week with a chimney which will be at least 60 feet high. It's already been dubbed the Blackpool Tower of the Vale of York and would stick out like a very large sore thumb.”
Tockwith Residents’ Association, who has started a major fundraising campaign against BCB, has also welcomed the latest move this week.
The association’s spokesman, Clive Billenness said: “Objectors have pledged to turn out in force next Thursday to show Harrogate councillors how concerned we are about this proposal."
BCB's plans have sparked outrage among Tockwith residents who fear their health will be severely affected by airborne hazardous particles.
The Wetherby News has been inundated with letters and emails from concerned residents, many of who are concerned about a plant being so near to the village school.
Terry Quail, of Prince Rupert Drive, said this week: "My grandchildren attend the primary school which is almost next to the proposed site. How can the authorities even consider the above plant in a residential area?"
But despite so many objections BCB Environmental has always maintained its plans are part of up and coming government waste directives.
It claims it would never be allowed to build a plant that did not comply with environmental legislation either.
Its spokesman said: “It is North Yorkshire County Council who will decide this application and it is they who have to follow government guidelines on waste policy. The fact that the Yorkshire assembly has commented on the plans is a reflection that what BCB plans to do fits in with several government policies.”
It said representatives would be leafleting every house in Tockwith over the next couple of weeks with in depth answers to some of the more complex residents’ questions put to it during last week’s open evenings.
l See letters page 6.
susannah.berry@ypn.co.uk
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Wetherby
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
