FOR IMMEDIATE USE

Issue date: 7 July 2019 Waste incineration plans – health risk warning

Over 60 residents of Trostrey, Bettws Newydd, Gwehelog, and Raglan attended a meeting in Bettws Newydd Village Hall last Thursday, 4th July, to voice their opposition to plans for a waste incinerator at a nearby farm.

Residents objected to the wholly inappropriate siting of an ‘industrial plant’ in rural , bringing with it noise and airborne pollution, unacceptable visual impact and additional HGV traffic on minor roads. Medical specialists at the meeting stressed the serious health risks from incinerator emissions.

The proposal, submitted to Monmouthshire County Council by David Morgan of Trostrey Court, would see over a hundred tons a day of waste wood and fuel derived from municipal and industrial waste, possibly including hazardous material, being trucked to the site, probably from outside the county.

Llanarth Fawr Community Councillor Lindsey Williams, outlining the history of previous applications on the site, said, ‘the application states that the plant has operated continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, without local complaint. In fact it has not operated for years.’ Councillor Williams said it was vital that the

County Council undertake proper assessments of the health, environmental and traffic impacts. When the site operated in the past there was ‘no monitoring’ at all –

‘so who knows what level of pollution may already have come out of that plant?’ In addition to local concerns, there are wider issues with the growing use of incineration to process residual waste. Last year Chief Scientific Adviser at Defra,

Professor Ian Boyd, warned (note 1) that further investment in ‘Energy from Waste’ plants would stunt the UK’s recycling rate. ‘If there is one way of extinguishing the value in materials fast, it’s to stick it in an incinerator and burn it. Now, it may give out energy at the end of the day, but actually some of those materials, even if they are plastics, with a little bit of ingenuity, can be given more positive value’.

A report (2) produced by Monmouthshire County Council in 2018 as part of its revision of the Local Development Plan concluded that the county had sufficient incineration capacity, and that ‘Any proposals for further residual waste treatment should be carefully assessed to ensure that the facility would not result in overprovision’.

‘Residents would like to see the Council focus on genuine renewable energy, such as solar power – not have outdated, polluting plants, that could operate for decades to come, foisted on them’, added Gwehelog Community Councillor John

Kershaw. ‘We can’t burn our way out of this climate emergency’.

ends

Notes to editors

(1) See: https://resource.co/article/chief-defra-scientist-warns-more-

incineration-could-harm-innovation-12382 (2) LDP Review Report (March 2018) Monmouthshire County Council, Planning

Policy Service, p39

The plant was originally granted planning permission in 2007 to run a standby electrical generating unit, with surplus heat used to help heat adjacent poultry sheds.

Subsequent planning permissions have seen considerable changes to its capacity and fuelstock – but it has only ever operated intermittently, and not for some years.

The plant uses gasification technology; gasification plants convert solid waste into synthetic gas or oils, followed by combustion - meaning they are regulated in the EU as waste incinerators. The Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 treat gasification plants as incinerators.

For further information contact: Lindsey Williams on 01873 880356 or

07974011326

Photo caption: The application (DM/2018/01641) includes a 17 metre high flue stack for the generator building – the same as 4 Routemaster buses piled one on top of the other. The developer already has permission for another two 17 metre stacks,

(an emergency flare stack, and a ‘dryer exhaust’ for reducing the moisture content of waste wood). The site is in the scenic Usk Valley, on a designated cycle route and a lane much used by walkers and horse riders.