Grundon urged to drop incinerator fight

Nov 27 2009 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

POLITICIANS have called on Grundon to walk away from Perth and realise their Shore Road waste to energy incinerator isn’t wanted in the Fair City.

MP Pete Wishart, who has welcomed the development control committee decision to refuse the company’s detailed plans, along with SNP Roseanna Cunningham, said Grundon couldn’t believe their luck when they found the local planners had made a “catastrophic decision” to grant Holden Environmental outline approval.

But nobody wanted the plant and he urged the company to behave honourably and bin their Perth plans.

Councillor Lorraine Caddell, who has criticised the planners and roads department for their approach to the proposed development, stressed Grundon were “the innocent party” and hadn’t done anything wrong.

But she too looked to the full council to revoke the original consent which had caused all the problems.

Grundon representatives sought, unsuccessfully, to defer a development control committee decision this week, to allow them more time to respond to SEPA concerns lodged belatedly with the local authority.

Grundon director of estates Bob Nicholson said he was well aware of the anti-incinerator rhetoric generated in Perth but claimed the case had been “significantly misrepresented.”

He noted that Grundon had invested in taking forward the Perth project because Holden Environmental had secured outline consent in 2006 for their Shore Road site. He reminded the meeting it wasn’t Grundon which had applied for that original planning permission.

And that consent was the reason Grundon focused on the Shore Road, and didn’t cast around for alternative sites.

Regarding SEPA’s late objections, he maintained they could be resolved.

While he said much had been made of the perception that the site was too small to accommodate the plant, there was “no set size to accommodate the model.” Mr Nicholson stressed the site and plant complied with guidelines, and local, national and European legislation, and it fitted the Scottish government’s strategy for recycling and waste disposal for the Tayside area.

He did admit that Grundon would have liked the site to be bigger for logistical reasons and to handle deliveries, more than 200 lorries a day, more comfortably. But, that said, the site “ticked all the boxes” and “architectural tricks” would make the building less formidable.

He said Grundon was fully aware of public concern but whatever technology that would be used would be “proven and tested.” The company enjoyed a professional and reliable reputation.

Mr Nicholson expressed disappointment that the council, Bridgend Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council and PA reporter Gordon Bannerman all turned down invitations to view the company’s award-winning waste to energy plant near Heathrow. The company operated more than 20 plants, including ones in Vienna, Paris and Hamburg.

The design of the Perth plant, which would employ up to 45 people, had followed on from months of discussions with council officers.

They were “stuck” with the 260-foot chimney, which was required because of emissions, the topography and meteorological conditions.

He told Councillor Callum Gillies the fact that part of the site was council-owned was something for the future.