Children should not be 'Guinea pigs' for Wisbech mega incinerator say opponents

Campaigners have hit back at claims by the firm behind plans to build a mega waste incinerator in Wisbech that potential air pollution will be part of the planning process.

Lead campaigner Virginia Bucknor of Wisbech Without Incineration (WisWIN) has previously said the Planning Inspectorate has agreed to exclude many of the concerns of Wisbech residents including air pollution from the planning process.

However, Paul Carey, managing director of MVV Environment Ltd, has responded to those claims and said the company’s own scoping report “clearly details the range and depth of environmental assessments, which we consider necessary in order to determine what impacts, if any, our project might have on the surrounding area.

“These include rigorous air quality assessments. We believe that the single phrase, picked up by Mrs Bucknor and used out of context, is the Planning Inspectorate’s statement in relation to climate change.”

Mr Carey said: “The Inspectorate agrees that this matter can be scoped out of the assessment.

“This does not mean that we do not need to assess air quality, indeed the air quality assessment will be very extensive; it is simply that the effects of climate change are difficult to determine.”

But Mrs Bucknor hit back claiming the air pollution assessments referred to by MVV will in fact be undertaken once the incinerator is built.

She said: "The company have not responded to WisWIN but chose to contact the local newspaper as they want to get the maximum of publicity with the minimum of effort.

"The Planning Inspectorate's response to the concerns regarding air pollution have used such words as "unlikely" and "difficult to establish".

"The flaw in the company's argument is that they want to build it to test it. And if proved wrong what happens then? Our children shouldn't be the Guinea pigs for this experiment.

"Residents, surrounding villages and farms and MVV will not know the effects until this mega incinerator is built. The developer needs to be reminded that they built a similar sized incinerator in Manheim with a population of over 310,000. Why on earth do they think the same should be built in a rural Georgian town with poor road infrastructure and so very close to our schools?

"When receiving daily loads from around 150 vehicles, they plan to store this waste for up to 11 days. No one needs any imagination whatsoever to consider the smell of thousands of tons of rotting waste, however they try to "mitigate".

"The Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, turned down the proposed Waterbeach incinerator - a much smaller one than that proposed for Wisbech, primarily because of the Grade I Abbey. Wisbech has the Grade I Peckover House and 265 Grade II Listed buildings. Again, why has MVV chosen our town to receive this monolith?

"Anyone wishing to display a poster or large banner or to be kept informed of the campaign please visit our Facebook site WisWIN or website: WisWIN.org.uk.

"We all need to help in any way we can to stop this horror being built in our beautiful town."