Power plant anger

May 29 2009 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

PERTH and Kinross Council has been bombarded by objections to the controversial Shore Road incinerator plan. It was confirmed yesterday that the local authority had already received 750 submissions.

Petitions are also circulating in the Perth area objecting to the Grundon Waste Management plans for a £100 million waste to energy plant by the South Inch parkland.

The project would have a 260-foot smoke stack and the vast building would stretch to 114-feet high.

Objectors, including Councillor Peter Barrett, who has claimed the development would turn Perth into a “rubbish burning hellhole,” were out and about in Gannochy yesterday with a petition.

He said: “We already have 500 names on our Stop the Incinerator petition and expect that to double.

“People are beginning to realise the scale of this proposed development and the impact it would have on Perth and the surrounding area. There is also leafleting under way.

“This is certainly one of the highest ever responses to a planning application for Perth and that indicates the massive public concern.”

While the decision-making timetable may have slipped, Councillor Barrett urged individual objectors to add their weight to the campaign of opposition.

The Grundon plans would see up to 90,000 tonnes of waste material processed and burned.

Objectors – and many have expressed health fears in the pages of the PA – have pointed out that the smoke stack will be 40 feet higher than the spire at St Matthews Church.

A council spokesman said the application, which already enjoys in-principle approval under delegated powers, w

as likely to be considered by a committee “in the late summer”.

He said that given the volume of submissions it had triggered, the deadline for objections was currently open ended.