Former Perth and Kinross Council executive calls for incinerator probe

Nov 27 2009 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A FURIOUS former council chief executive yesterday demanded a “robust inquiry” into the local authority’s mishandling of the Shore Road incinerator controversy.

And Jim Cormie stressed that it should go all the way to the top.

A long-time Fair City resident and one-time district council chief, he said: “There should be a full inquiry into how this outline consent was ever granted – but it shouldn’t stop there.

“It should reach to the very top, to chief executive level, where I believe changes need to be made. I consider there has been rank incompetence in the handling of this application, and not just within the planning department.”

Mr Cormie, who was among protestors voicing concerns at this week’s marathon development control committee meeting which unanimously rejected Grundon Waste Management’s detailed plans for an incinerator near the South Inch parklands, continued: “The chief executive, Bernadette Malone, and her depute Jim Irons, are supposed to be in charge. The buck stops with them, no question.

“I wasn’t surprised the chief executive didn’t appear at this week’s meeting. She never puts her head above the parapet.”

While welcoming the councillors’ decision to throw out the Grundon proposals Mr Cormie admitted he was “hopping mad” that convener Councillor Willie Wilson hadn’t pressed for the subsequent report to the full council to go the whole hog and recommend revocation.

“What on earth do we need another report for? The last one was 82 pages of obfuscation and they were merely intent on covering their backsides.

“It is essential the outline consent is revoked and this council should have faced up to it right at the start.

“Now Grundon have obviously invested substantially in the project but revocation could still be the cheapest and certainly the necessary option open to the council.”

Roddy Young, chairman of Perth Civic Trust, said the heritage watchdog had been initially assured it was a “backyard incinerator” providing hot water for the prison.