Page 20 - Hunstanton Town & Around - February 2014

20 Hunstanton Town & Around February 2014 Tel: 01485 533422 email: editor@townandaround.net
Incinerator update Candles burn to stop Incinerator

Mike Knights info@farmerscampaign.org
The planning decision is still not Council’s green alternative is
known. Opponents of the much cheaper costing only £55
incinerator have pointed to per tonne to recycle waste.
Wheelabrator’s record arguing Material Works have secured
that Norfolk cannot afford to have £100 million of private funding
a “High Priority Violator” (HPV) and Environment Agency
here. This is the term used by the certification for their process,
United States Environmental which transforms waste into
Protection Agency (EPA) to composite building materials;
describe some Wheelabrator creating around 200 jobs.
incinerators in America. Economically and
According to the official EPA environmentally it is better than
web site. Five Wheelabrator burning.
facilities are currently listed as If the incinerator were to go
violating various environmental ahead it would represent a gross Front row from left: Mrs M Bocking, Jean Marley, Richard and Pearl
laws including the Clean Air Act. injustice. West Norfolk would be Hardwick, Mrs Babb. Middle row from left: Barbara Church, Cllr
Fourteen had formal enforcement recycling virtually all its waste Alexandra Kemp, Cllr Richard Bird, Eileen Gittens. Back row: Charles
action taken against them within while at the same time being Joyce, Michael de Whalley, Cllr John Dobson, John Church
the last 5 years. With the King’s forced to burn it from the rest of A twelve-hour candlelit vigil was held at the Quaker Meeting House in
Lynn incinerator proposed for a Norfolk. County Council officials King’s Lynn on Saturday 31st December when visitors were encouraged
location upwind of the town and have still not given a convincing to write last-minute letters urging Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to
existing air quality already poor reason why Norfolk should pay refuse planning permission for the proposed incinerator project in King’s
in some areas pollution is an inflated prices for incineration Lynn.
important issue. During the over the next 25 years. Organised by Alexandra Kemp in whose Division the incinerator could
planning inquiry KLWIN asked For more information visit: be sited, the vigil attracted people from all over West Norfolk. She said:
Cory Wheelabrator for their www.farmerscampaign.org and “We are here today on behalf of future generations because we know that
intended filter specification but www.klwin.com. in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk we have the highest number of children
they declined to provide it. Even Fund Raising Event between the ages of five and ten in the county, and the projections show
after a price reduction the Coffee and Crafts Feb 22nd 2014 that we will have a sustained increase until 2016. We also have a high rate
Willows incinerator still Fairgreen Farms, Hill Road, of asthma and emergency admissions to hospital of young children –
represents the most expensive Middleton, PE32 1RN. Doors sometimes double that of other local authority areas. It is up to us to protect
alternative to landfill at £105 per open 9 till 12:30. Tel 01553 the health of our children”
tonne. West Norfolk Borough 840640 for more details.
Sustained by coffee and cake residents and councillors committed their
objections to the scheme to paper while messages of support were received
Ray Butcher’s easy Su Doku by text, e mail and telephone. All these messages are being forwarded to

Mr Pickles.
Charles Joyce, Borough Councillor for South and West Lynn Ward said:
“ I remain totally opposed to the incinerator and am very pleased to see that
my County Councillor (Ms Kemp) and many of the residents of South and
West Lynn are supporting the vigil. It is a total disgrace that the Leader of

the County Council has reneged on his pledge to honour the wishes of the
people of West Norfolk.”
Cllr John Dobson said: “The situation we find ourselves in now is a

travesty of local democracy. The people of West Norfolk are having a
hugely expensive, unnecessary and old-fashioned mass-burn incinerator

foisted upon them effectively by a Chief Officer Group in the County
Council, the principal members of which have now left the Authority. This
is in direct contravention of the properly expressed views of local residents
and is an indictment of so-called ‘Localism’. I feel ashamed and degraded
by my fellow Councillors who have allowed this nonsense to prevail.”

Supporting this event on behalf of the residents of the North Coast
Division (Hunstanton to Burnham Market), Cllr Richard Bird said: “We
are expecting Eric Pickles to announce his decision soon, so it is vital that

he understands that this Incinerator is an ill-conceived and unnecessary
project that would blight West Norfolk. The local industries in my Division
are: leisure, tourism, retirement and care, and all of these could be adversely
affected by an incinerator. Also I don’t believe that the environmental

arguments have been heard, especially those regarding protected species
inhabiting the Wash ”