Wisbech incinerator fight steps up this month

The formal process of scrutinising the planning application for the construction of an incinerator on the outskirts of Wisbech is now under way.

The Planning Inspectorate will start the examination process on February 21, with a preliminary meeting of interested parties – including Fenland Town Council.

Since it became aware of the application for a ‘mega-incinerator’, the council has opposed it at every turn and submitted formal objections.

It engaged an experienced professional consultant, who not only helped to prepare the council’s submission to the Planning Inspectorate but will be representing, as appropriate, the authority as the application moves through the various stages of the Planning Inspectorate’s examination process.

The examination process commences on February 21, with the preliminary meeting of interested parties. The purpose of that meeting, in summary, is for interested parties to be given an understanding as to the how the examination process will operate. It is not a forum for discussion of the merits or otherwise of the planning application.

Wisbech Town will be represented at the this meeting by Councillor Peter Human, in his capacities as Leader of the Council and as chairman of the environment and public spaces committee, and Terry Jordan, as clerk to Wisbech Town Council.

This preliminary meeting will be followed by an Issue Specific Hearing the next day. The purpose of that hearing is to begin the process of examining the application. Again, Councillor Human and the town clerk will be representing Wisbech Town Council at the hearing, along with the council’s consultant.

The council had made financial provision of £30,000 to meet the costs of employing technical expertise to “fight” the proposal to build the incinerator in Wisbech.

Some of that money has been spent on the production of the council’s submission to the Inspectorate and it is anticipated that the remaining balance will meet the anticipated costs of specialist advice.