3000 say no to Perth incinerator as clock ticks

Nov 20 2009 by Alison Lowson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

THE petition containing more than 3000 signatures calling for Perth and Kinross Council to “Revoke the Smoke” was delivered yesterday.

A band of six-year-olds carried boxes of the Revoke the Smoke petition into Perth’s Pullar House council buildings, as the clock ticks ever nearer to decision day.

At 1pm on Tuesday, Development Control Committee members, planning officers and those for and against the controversial £100million giant waste incinerator in Perth’s Shore Road will gather in the Dewars Centre when the councillors will decide whether to approve, refuse, defer or revoke the planning application.

The decision-makers will have before them a detailed, 70-page report from the Council’s head of planning, Roland Bean, recommending refusal. Grounds for that refusal, he states, should be on overdevelopment and the unacceptable visual impact of the proposed building, particularly on the Perth Central Conservation Area.

A major factor which could influence the committee is the 11th-hour objection to Grundon Waste Management Ltd’s application from Scotland’s environmental regulator, SEPA.

The environment agency had previously informed the council it had no objections to the application, but then last week submitted another letter – this time objecting on the grounds that a suitable or detailed site selection process had not been carried out.

Despite SEPA’s apparent death knell for Grundon’s plans, anti-incinerator campaigners have called for a huge turnout of objectors at Tuesday’s meeting to drive home the depth of local feeling and the disgust at the way the application has been handled by the council.

“Next Tuesday could be make or break for Perth’s future,” stressed a spokesperson for Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council, which has been among those at the forefront of the campaign.

“The town, and in particular the Perthshire Advertiser which is working tirelessly with the local community to put a stop to this monstrosity, really has pulled together on this crucial issue, but there must be no let up on the pressure on the council to revoke the incinerator’s outline consent.”

And today the community council’s comments will be made loud and clear in a letter to all 41 councillors who will receive its official response to the planning department’s report on the incinerator.

In his letter, community council chairman Brian Raine describes the report as ‘self-exonerating’, ‘disingenuous and insulting’.