Campaigners continue fight over incinerator plans

With one week to go until public consultation closes on proposals for a new incinerator near Horsham a campaign group has created a new document to help fight the plans.
No Incinerator 4 Horsham membersNo Incinerator 4 Horsham members
No Incinerator 4 Horsham members

No Incinerator 4 Horsham has produced a 36 page document illustrating why it feels Britaniacrest should not be given planning permission by West Sussex County Council to build the £150m facility in Langhurstwood Road.

The waste management company is looking to create a ‘Recycling, Recovery and Renewable Energy’ facility, sorting around 230,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial waste.

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The proposals say the building would be approximately 119.5m in length and 99m wide, with a 95m chimney built on the eastern side of the site.

Waste will be broken up and recycled and those items which can not will be incinerated and turned into electricity to power both the station and homes.

Campaigners have produced the document to scale down the 155 page planning application submitted just before Christmas.

It outlines issues including the design, size and location of the building, the impact on traffic in the area and the concerns over air quality and pollution created by emissions.

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Norman Clarke, of No Incinerator 4 Horsham, said: “We took it upon ourselves to obtain help analysing and putting together a detailed report of the proposal in Horsham.

“The details of our report categorically condemn the submission made by Britaniacrest, demonstrate that the planning application is totally unfeasible and unrealistic for the area in which it is proposed.

“It also questions many of the details provided in the environmental sections and highlights the devastating visual impact it would have on the whole area of Horsham and surrounding villages.”

The group has been out in force over the past couple of weeks delivering leaflets to homes and schools throughout the area and campaigning in the town centre.

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Horsham MP Jeremy Quin popped down to listen to concerns and encouraged those opposed to write to the county council before public consultation closes at the end of the month.

“We have also met with councillors and spoken at council meetings to voice the real concerns residents have regarding the visual impact such an incinerator would have in terms of the height and ugliness of this industrial building,” Mr Clarke said.

“There is also the matter of the overall environmental degradation that would be caused to areas of outstanding natural beauty as well as rural communities in West Sussex and Surrey.

“We will continue fighting these proposals and are prepared to go all the way in opposing this incinerator.”

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Britaniacrest said it had ‘no choice but to build the facility’ and campaigners need to ‘face the reality’.

Chris Foss, of Britaniacrest, said: “Facilities such as the 3Rs are badly needed, or before long there will be nowhere at all to dispose of commercial waste without travelling very long distances.

“Society has a responsibility to deal with its waste - whether it is from business or produced in the home. The advantage of the 3Rs will be is that it will be able to deal with both, and do so in a responsible and environmentally safe manner.”

To comment email [email protected] quoting reference WSCC/062/16/NH.

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