You may not have picked up on the fact that the Sinfin incineration plant -
due to open in September 2017 after a delay due to the technology developer
going into administration (fills you with confidence) has applied to the
Environment Agency (EA) to burn nearly 18,000 tonnes more rubbish than it was
granted to burn.
If your a local person - who may have objected in the past you would have expected the Governments Environment Agency to go out of their way to flag this proposal up to you because you have previously engaged with them on the sites permit.
Obviously there are grave concerns regarding this application to burn more waste - the site next to the
air quality management area (AQMA) will have an even greater impact than is
already proposed. Derby is now being targeted by DEFRA due to poor air quality and so surely greater scrutiny needs to take place with such applications.
Resource Recovery Solutions (RRS) / Shanks Waste claim it will not have a greater impact than was passed by the EA but
all that consisted of was models of emissions - nobody will be carrying out real
tests at ground level - the Environment Agency will not do so, Derby City Council - responsible for air quality in the city will not do so and the developer RRS / Shanks will not do so even after I requested they take on the example of UBB in Gloucestershire who are building an incineration plant and have agreed to fund air quality monitoring around their site before and after construction. When asked RRS/ Shanks refused.
The important story here - other than something so controversial
burning even more than planned and nobody will monitor the impact at ground level is that
RESIDENTS HAVE NOT BEEN TOLD THAT THERE
IS A CONSULTATION TAKING PLACE ON THIS WHICH RUNS TILL JANUARY 20TH 2017.
When the permit was first applied for a number of years ago - and later granted residents were
able to have their say. The EA held local consultations and residents could
write in with their views - so the EA should have their addresses which you would hope they would use to write to the residents to advise of this latest proposal. It was also
advertised in the local press in the Public Notices etc. PEOPLE WERE AWARE !
Move onto late 2016 and out of the blue I heard from the UK Without
Incineration Network (UKWIN) that they had seen an application on a government
website.
I looked into this and sure enough found the following
What became very clear very quickly was that nobody was aware of this
application - finalised in early December 2016 BUT ACTUALLY IT TURNS OUT
submitted in JUNE as was later admitted by Will Spurr from Shanks Waste via the
Community Liaison Group (CLG)
they didn't even tell the
CLG even though the CLG had met between June and December.
When challenged in recent weeks the EA have admitted that the only place
the consultation is promoted is on their government website! HOW DOES THAT
ENGAGE WITH THE PUBLIC ? hiding important consultations away on a government
website that 99.99% of the population would never look at !
It shows that the councils, Shanks Waste / RRS and the Environment Agency
have a total disregard for public views and opinions
WHY?
The councils knew because their contractor is Shanks Waste / RRS - but didn't tell the public!
Shanks Waste / RRS knew because THEY were the applicant - but didn't tell the public!
The Environment Agency who knew have done the very least they could to tell the public!
CONSULTATION ANYONE !
CONSULTATION ANYONE !
©SIMON BACON 2017
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