DOVE

Rejection Of Onyx's Planning Application For Energy Recovery Facility & Waste Transfer Station

Re: Planning Application No. LW/462/CM(EIA)

The Waste Local Plan is the planning framework the planning application will be judged by – it has not been adopted and the above should not be decided until adoption of the Plan has taken place.

The whole application rests upon the false assertion by Onyx that a conventional mass burn moving grate incinerator of 210,000 tonnes per year capacity is a necessary part of the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) for dealing with the municipal waste of Brighton & Hove and East Sussex for the next 35 years (the operational design life of the proposed plant). The BPEO analysis which was done with no public consultation as part of the Waste Plan, was invalidated by the Inspecor at the Public Inquiry. There is now an urgent need for another independent BPEO analysis to be done in the light of recent evidence regarding both the best way forward for waste management and the health hazards of incineration, especially those related to particulate emissions.

The planning application is not full and complete. Much of the data is missing and it therefore should be subject to an independent peer review as well as an independent BPEO analysis. EU directive 2003/4/EC article 8 states:  “Member States shall, so far as is within their power, ensure that any information that is compiled by them or on their behalf is up to date, accurate and comparable.

If planning permission is given, the resulting incinerator will be an enormous visual intrusion into Newhaven and the area of outstanding natural beauty which adjoins the site. It will be an everlasting monument to social injustice and social exclusion.  A permanent reminder to all who live in Newhaven and the surrounding area that Brighton & Hove and the rest of East Sussex view us with contempt and only worthy to be a dumping ground.  The area will be blighted.

The Community will be adversely affected. Regeneration of the town will stop and the pollution emitted from this plant will give rise to health problems and irrevocably alter the genes and well being of future generations: 100% of elemental mercury is emitted from the incinerator and on temperature inversion periods this heavy metal, alongside lead and cadmium will pollute the town and nearby areas.  A Report by the British Society for Ecological Medicine on “The Health Effects of Waste Incinerators” has recently been published (February 2006) and recommends that no more municipal solid waste incinerators be built.  Click here for full report. 

The planning application is still open for public comment and objection until the Planning and Highways Transport Committee sits to decide. This period could be until August. Please continue to send in letters, and inform friends that they may comment as well.

Also please write to the individual councillors on the planning committee giving your views.  They are the following. 

Please note Pat Ost has expressed his opposition to an incinerator at Newhaven and has therefore excluded himself from the descision making process.

Godfrey Daniels, labour counsillor for Hastings on the 6 December 2005 stood and spoke in favour of incineration therefore as he is clearly biased on the subject please could you write to the Law & Performance Department and ask that he also be excluded from the descision making process.  

Dove will be seeking an injunction to prevent the Planning Committee making a descision on this application until a valid BPEO that has been subject to public consultation is produced.

Anyone who thinks they may have skills or knowledge that will be helpful to this cause please contact us through our email on this website.

EU directives can be accessed through our archives.  Some Statutory Instruments can also be accessed.

The campaign against the Waste Transfer Station in Brighton is coordinated by Dump The Dump.