INCINERATOR: Claims provoke response
8th December 2010 - the following article is reproduced by kind permission of Lynn News
NORFOLK County Council has responded to last week’s report in the Lynn News on bad experiences with waste incinerators in two other parts of England.
Campaigners against the incinerator proposed for Lynn outlined their concerns by referring to dioxin emission problems encountered with a plant on the Isle of Wight, run by Waste Gas Technology, and the continuing financial burden from one near Maidstone in Kent, built with private finance initiative help.
County council spokesman John Birchall said: “The Isle of Wight plant that encountered problems is a gasification demonstration project. This is not the same technology as that proposed for Saddlebow.
“There are energy from waste plants operating all over the country and Europe without any such problems, but this is not mentioned. One three times the size of Saddlebow is currently being commissioned at Riverside in the centre of London.”
On the Maidstone plant, he said: “There is no possible comparison with Kent. The Saddlebow plant is of a size that allows for increased recycling in Norfolk.
“Kent may or may not regret its decision ten years ago, but what we can say is that in Norfolk the switch from landfill to this plant will save £8 million a year.
“Put another way, without this plant, or an equally effective alternative, council taxpayers will have to shell out hard-earned cash to cover the extra £8million cost.”
Mr Birchall pointed out: “The fundamental issue is the concern that the plant will emit pollutants that will affect people’s health and the environment, yet objective examination of the evidence tells us that these fears have been blown up out of all proportion.
“It is the national and international agencies, not Norfolk County Council, that have carried out and reviewed all the research and data and say that modern well-run energy from waste plants are safe and pose no significant risk to human health or the environment.”
n In Friday’s paper, it was reported that 313 people unanimously voted against the incinerator at a public meeting in Lynnsport last Tuesday.
In fact, 240 people were at Lynnsport and they all voted against the incinerator. The 313 figure was the total from that meeting plus two others, at Clenchwarton and North Wootton, held in the same week.
Paul Moore, who arranged the Lynnsport meeting, said the county council was invited to send a representative to answer questions, but nobody turned up despite follow-up emails.
Local environmental consultant Richard Burton and farmers campaign leader Mike Knights told the meeting why they believed the incinerator would be bad for West Norfolk.