Meeting to be held over incinerator
FINAL preparations are today being made for a public meeting to gather support for a bid to block a waste burning plant at Great Blakenham.Campaigners want to scupper Suffolk County Council's bid to build a £600million incinerator in Great Blakenham over fears it will churn out fumes that place people's health at risk, cause a slump in house prices and blot the landscape.
FINAL preparations are today being made for a public meeting to gather support for a bid to block a waste burning plant at Great Blakenham.
Campaigners want to scupper Suffolk County Council's bid to build a £600million incinerator in Great Blakenham over fears it will churn out fumes that place people's health at risk, cause a slump in house prices and blot the landscape.
Protest group Suffolk Against Incineration and Landfill (SAIL) is this week finalising plans for a large meeting, involving presentations from health experts, to highlight the issue to the wider public.
Peter Welham, head of SAIL, said: “People we have consulted up and down the county, including experts, will come in and talk at the meeting about incineration, the perils of incineration and alternatives to incineration.
“We don't accept incineration as the be all and end all.
“We have had support from people you wouldn't normally expect to be militant - local people who would not normally get involved with this kind of thing are asking 'why are we doing this?'”
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Mr Welham said SAIL has already received wide-ranging support from groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Bright Green, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Suffolk Together.
He said: “We want Suffolk County Council to reconsider the whole incineration issue.”
The public meeting is expected to be scheduled for some time next month.
A county council transport depot in Great Blakenham has been named as the preferred site for the controversial £600million incinerator project.
Following a Freedom of Information request made by The Evening Star it emerged that a further site in Great Blakenham - earmarked for the SnOasis development - as well as land in Felixstowe made the six-site short list for the waste-burning facility.
Suffolk County Council is in the process of putting the incinerator contract out to tender.
The authority insists an incinerator would pose no risk to public health.
Are you in favour of a public inquiry over the incinerator issue? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
