Have Your Say: Deeside incinerator public consultation
The company behind the proposed Deeside waste incinerator – Wheelabrator are launching a series of public consultations on the £800m ‘Parc Adfer’ project.
The five council NWRWTP partnership which includes Flintshire, Isle of Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire and Gwynedd was formed to source sustainable solutions to the counties future processing of household waste.
Currently around 50% household rubbish in the five counties goes into landfill, a new incinerator will reduce that amount of landfill waste to around 30%
It is estimated the new site will process 200,000 tonnes of non-recyclable household waste per year, the company claim the incinerator will generate electricity equivalent to the needs of around 30,000 homes
The development on a former steelworks site at the Deeside Industrial Park, has been named Parc Adfer which in Welsh means to ‘recover’ or ‘restore’ 300 jobs will be created during the construction phase and around 35 full time jobs once the facility is operational.
Wheelabrator is asking local residents and businesses for their feedback and the information gathered will help the team refine and improve its plans, ahead of submitting a planning application to Flintshire County Council later this year.
The consultation will run until Friday 11th July, with a series of six public exhibitions taking place in the first half of June.
Gary Aguinaga, Vice President, UK Operations at Wheelabrator, said:
“This is our first opportunity to talk to local people about the technology we’re proposing and explain how we intend to build and operate this facility in a safe and responsible way. We want people to ask us questions – because that means we can start to address some of the concerns that have been raised and we can demonstrate how our experience and commitment to excellence will make this a state of the art facility that North Wales can be proud of. I’d encourage people to contact us, find out how they can get involved and ensure they make their views known.”
The drop-in events are scheduled for:
Friday 6th June – 13:00-17:00
Coleg Cambria,
Kelsterton Rd, Deeside, CH5 4BR
Saturday 7th June – 10:00-14:00
Connah’s Quay Civic Hall,
Wepre Drive, CH5 4HA
Wednesday 11th June – 10:00-20:00
Connah’s Quay Town Council,
Quay Building, Fron Road, CH5 4PJ
Thursday 12th June – 14:00-20:00
Gladstone Village Hall,
The Village, Burton, CH64 5TH
Friday 13th June – 09:00-17:00
Days Hotel,
Garden City, Welsh Rd, CH52 2HX
Saturday 14th June – 09:00-14:00
Deeside Leisure Centre,
Chester Road West, Queensferry, CH5 1SA
Wheelabrator say the technology for the site is ‘proven’ with around 450 similar facilities already operating across the UK and Europe, and state they are already committed to introducing additional air quality monitoring for the site, providing added assurance for local communities.
However, a UK wide study aiming to establish whether there is a link between modern municipal waste incinerator emissions and health defects has been postponed until 2015, in what the Breathe Clean Air Group has labelled a government ‘cover-up’.
Research funded by Public Health England was due to be published in March 2014, the study involves examining areas of up to 15km around 22 incinerators across England, including Grundon’s Lakeside energy-from-waste facility, the SELCHP plant in Lewisham, the London Waste Edmonton incinerator and SITA UK’s Tees Valley plant in Billingham.
Scientists hope to determine if there is a potential link between incinerator emissions and health outcomes, such as low birth weight, still births and infant death.
Commenting on the postponement, Pete Kilvert, chairman of the anti-incinerator Breathe Clean Air Group said he feared the government would instruct the research teams to take ‘an average’ sample around each incinerator rather than look at the consequences on people living ‘downwind’ of each facility.
He said:
“The (UK) Government is hell bent on burning the country’s waste and telling us that it won’t do us any harm. When waste such as plastics, metals and organic material are burnt at low temperatures, then new chemicals such as dioxins and heavy metals will settle out into our community.”
Public Health England said it continues to stand by its position that well run and regulated municipal waste incinerators are not a significant risk to public health.
Commenting on the report delay, Dr Simon Bouffler, deputy director of Public Health England’s Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, said:
“It was originally envisaged that preliminary results for this study would be available by March 2014 but because of the unanticipated complexity in gathering data this has been delayed.
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References:
http://www.airqualitynews.com/
Handling FOI request about municipal waste incinerators
