Incinerator 2 fears

May 20 2011 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A FORMER Perth and Kinross Council chief executive yesterday laid the blame for the on-going Shore Road incinerator controversy firmly at the door of his High Street successors.

This week, UK waste management company Grundon returned with scaled-down proposals to create a £100 million plant in the city’s Shore Road, months after losing an appeal to the Scottish Government.

And while the smokestack now proposed has been reduced in height from 80m to 34m, Jim Cormie warned that could be even worse news for Perth.

He painted a grim picture of an incinerator being fed by lorry loads of waste 24 hours day, 365 days a year.

The one-time council chief fears Perth could become the “incineration capital of Scotland.”

Mr Cormie pointed the finger of blame firmly at current chief executive Bernadette Malone and senior managers, maintaining the incinerator threat should have been killed off by revoking planning consent given after a departmental botch-up – and paying compensation to see-off the English-based company.

Mr Cormie said: “This was the inevitable outcome of the Scottish Government Reporter’s decision on the previous application by Grundon, bearing in mind unhelpful statements by the reporter – such as ’the outline planning permission establishes the principle of an energy from waste plant on the appeal site’ and ‘I consider the proposed building design to be visually pleasing’ – as well as his acceptance of the completeness of the environmental impact assessment submitted by Grundon.

“While Grundon have moderated their plans to comply with comments made by the reporter, and the chimney stack and the buildings now proposed may be substantially lower and therefore less obtrusive, the other essential elements remain unchanged and totally unacceptable.

“In particular, they still intend to incinerate 90,000 tonnes of refuse a year with all the problems of noise and odour which will inevitably accompany this.

“That is nearly 250 tonnes of rubbish every day, every day of the year. That will demand a stream of heavy lorries.

“The problem of pollution in the centre of Perth could be greatly exacerbated by the fact that the chimney stack, being less than half the height of the one originally proposed, is likely to dump even more smoke, dirt, smell and harmful pollutants on the city.

“In other words, in this respect the new proposal is even worse than the original.

“The problem is further compounded by the situation of the plant in a low-lying area beside the river where, for many days of the year, there is no air movement at all.

“A town centre is simply no situation for a refuse incineration plant of any kind.”

Mr Cormie added that planning permission has already been granted by PKC for another refuse incineration plant at Binn Farm, near Glenfarg.

“As far as I know, this project is going ahead and I have no reason to believe that it will not be capable of dealing with all of the incineration required for this district,” he insisted.

“We certainly do not want to see refuse being imported from other parts of Scotland simply to be incinerated in the centre of Perth.

“Is Perth destined to become, not the sixth city of Scotland but the refuse capital of Scotland?

“Assuming – hopefully – that the council will refuse planning permission again, what happens if the appeal against that goes back to the same reporter?

“The whole thing is an appalling mess for which the council and their officials and advisers are entirely responsible.

“They should have taken the advice which was given to them when the original planning permission issued by the officials came to light.

“Namely to take action to revoke that planning permission.

“Compensation would have to have been paid to Grundon, because of the council’s stupid mistake, but it would have been cheap at the price compared to the sword of Damocles which now hangs over everyone’s head.

“How much expenditure has already been incurred in their endeavours to avoid admitting that a colossal mistake has been made for which, in their own words ‘no one official was responsible?’

“Even at this late date, if it is still possible to revoke the planning permission, the council should initiate such action.

“The council are relying on the fact that they are landlords of part of the site to enable them, as a last resort, to refuse permission. It is not a pretty picture.”