Archived press release

Planning commission decision on Merthyr incinerator slammed

27 January 2011

The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) decision to allow the application for a huge incinerator at Merthyr Tydfil to go forward for examination later this year was based on a bogus public consultation and will destroy local jobs, says Friends of the Earth .

The green campaigning charity says the 'examination stage', which the application will pass to now, only allows members of the public to raise concerns in writing - rather than having the right to cross-examine the developer as under the previous planning system.

The group also warns that building a new incinerator - which would have to burn thousands of tonnes of valuable resources every year to make it cost-effective - will undermine green waste policies, destroy jobs and saddle local councils with unknown financial liabilities for decades to come.

Friends of the Earth says the public consultation held by the developer Covanta was meaningless. In addition, the application should have been rejected because the Planning Act 2008 obliges the developer to consult local people on the detail of its proposals before applying to the IPC. The green campaigning charity is calling on the IPC to set up special hearings where local people can quiz the developer about how the incinerator will impact their community.

The Merthyr Tydfil application is one of the first to pass through the UK Government's new fast-track planning system.

Friends of the Earth's Planning Campaigner Mike Birkin said:

"This application should have been rejected - the process denied local people their rights and their voice, and it will destroy jobs and send valuable resources up in smoke.

"The consultation for this incinerator provided no information on traffic levels, air pollution, wildlife or health - people living near Merthyr are still in the dark.

"This decision sends the wrong signal to developers across England and Wales - that they can ignore the views of local people on major projects set to go ahead in their own back yards.

"To ensure it doesn't fail Merthyr even more, the Infrastructure Planning Commission must hold special hearings where the developer can be cross-examined by local people."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. The Planning Act 2008 requires developers to consult local people on the detail of their proposals before applying to the IPC. Friends of the Earth has written to the developers and the IPC to point out that in most aspects of Covanta's consultation this detail was entirely lacking.
2. The application is likely to be one of the first projects to be considered by the new "fast track" planning system, which severely limits the rights of local communities to be involved in the decision-making process.
3. Research for Friends of the Earth shows boosting recycling to 70% of household waste could create 2,600 jobs in Wales. Covanta's incinerator would provide work for only around 65 people - and only a fraction of these jobs would be offered to locals due to the lack of the required skills.
4. Covanta has also applied to build a large incinerator in Bedfordshire, where the IPC does not intend to allow hearings on highways, noise, landscape and design, air quality, odour, flooding, visual impact, light, waste recovery and management, public health impact, meteorology, need and delivery of the plant, and wildlife. IPC hearings on all these issues were requested by local authorities and others at the preliminary meeting into the Rookery South application, the first case to come before the IPC, but were turned down.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust