MP tells bosses to listen to people

Jun 26 2009 by Johnathon Menzies, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

PERTH politician Pete Wishart has accused the company behind plans to construct a huge waste-to-energy incinerator on the Fair City’s Shore Road of pursuing “commercial concerns” instead of listening to the will of local residents.

A vociferous opponent of the controversial £100million development – which would see a 260-foot stack constructed between the River Tay and the North Inch – the Perth and North Perthshire MP met Grundon Waste Management’s managing director Richard Skehens yesterday.

Following discussion at Westminster, Mr Wishart said: “I thought it was important to meet Grundon’s to ensure they fully appreciated the depth of opposition and hostility to their incinerator proposal from practically the whole city of Perth.

“I wanted to try and persuade them to put aside their commercial concerns and appreciate that by pursuing their incinerator proposal they could damage our crucial tourism ambitions.

“This is not about a perceived ‘not in our back yard’ attitude – it’s about not putting the ugliest building ever conceived for Perth on our beautiful front lawn,” he said.

The Perth and North Perthshire MP has suggested the Slough-based firm consider a new site for a project he labelled a “carbuncle.”

A “Stop the Incinerator” campaign by Perth city centre councillor Peter Barrett has attracted well in excess of 100 signatures.

And the SNP parliamentarian then called on locals to continue to submit their objections to Perth and Kinross Council after Grundon’s revealed they have no plans to withdraw the highly-controversial application.

He said: “They will secure the fight of their lives if they continue with these proposals and the people of Perth simply will not give up in their determination to beat this.

“However, Grundon’s seem intent on pursuing this and they still believe they can convince locals that this carbuncle is necessary, environmentally secure and unobtrusive.

“While they are aware of the substantial public opinion against the project, they have said this will not stop them in their determination to impose this incinerator on our city,” he said.