Shore Road incinerator ready to collapse, says Pete Wishart

Feb 5 2010 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

VOCIFEROUS supporter of the PA’s “Revoke the Smoke” campaign, Perth MP Pete Wishart, yesterday maintained Grundon are ready to walk away from the Shore Road controversy.

While the waste-to-energy specialists are planning an appeal against the development control committee’s decision to refuse reserved matters for the Holden site, Mr Wishart said behind-the-scenes talks with Grundon management at Westminster had led him to believe they will spike their Fair City plans.

Mr Wishart said: “It is now almost three months since Perth and Kinross Council's development control committee so decisively threw out the plans to have a pollutant-belching incinerator in our city centre.

“The people of Perth have since shown impressive patience and have allowed the council time to bring forward their plans.

“What is becoming clear though, is that this patience is running out and there is a clear desire to see proposals with revocation being the clear and favoured option.

“I recently met with Grundon and have seen correspondence which shows that they will vigorously contest any refusal on the reserved matters refusal.

“They have, however, hinted that if the incinerator proposal is revoked, they would abandon their plans and walk away.

“This must be the way forward and council officers have to bring forward a revocation proposal soon.”

Yesterday, a PKC spokesman insisted officers have been working flat out to prepare a report on the incinerator.

“Officers having been working on this case as a matter of priority since the special development control meeting in order to bring a report before the council at the earliest opportunity,” he said.

“Revocation is a complex matter and it has taken time to obtain expert advice and to fully examine all the issues. There has not been any procrastination.

“We now have that legal advice and will bring a paper to full council in the very near future.”