Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A FLAMING DISGRACE
Opponents fuming as DUP’S Girvan now backs waste incinerator plan
A DUP MP who opposed a huge £240million waste incinerator has made a shock U-turn over the controversial plan.
In a letter obtained by the Mirror, Paul Girvan is now urging government to give the “vital” plant the go-ahead.
Opponents of the rubbish burner fumed at the news. Campaigner Colin Buick said: “I am absolutely disgusted because the man stood on numerous platforms with us.”
PROTESTERS against plans to build a £240million waste incinerator were “disgusted” yesterday after a DUP MP who said he supported them has now backed the plant.
Paul Girvan made the U-turn over the proposed Arc21 development near Mallusk, Co Antrim, in a letter to the Infrastructure Minister seen by the Mirror.
For years the South Antrim MP had voiced his opposition to the plans and in 2017 shared a platform alongside other politicians with a residents’ group opposed to the incinerator.
In November 2019, Mr Girvan said there were “better ways exist to deal with waste”, adding: “This project should be incinerated and the community allowed to move on.”
But now, in a joint letter with seven other DUP MPS, Mr Girvan has urged Minister Nichola Mallon to approve the plans.
They said: “We write to represent strong support for the early delivery of a planning approval for the Arc21 Residual Waste Treatment Project [RWTP] at Mallusk.
“This is a vital strategic project for the successful delivery of Northern Ireland’s future waste management strategy and the immense private sector investment [£240 million] in the post-covid recovery
phase period must be welcomed.” Colin Buick, chairman of the No-arc21 campaign group, hit out at Mr Girvan’s move, saying: “I am absolutely disgusted because the man has stood on numerous platforms with us.”
Mr Buick added the MP had only weeks ago expressed his continued support for the campaign group.
He said: “If it’s true I would be totally flabbergasted by the fact that for the seven years of our campaign Paul Girvan MP has stood shoulder to shoulder with the community in objecting to this waste monster.”
In their three-page letter sent last month, the DUP MPS said Northern Ireland’s waste management approach is “no longer environmentally or economically sustainable” due to landfill capacity pressures and expected increases in waste export costs.
They said the Arc21 project will bring investment, generate income and create hundreds of jobs.
It is of “vital importance to councils in Northern Ireland if they are to avoid huge rates increases due to waste management”, they added.
The letter emerges amid a split in opinion in the DUP over the incinerator project.
While South Antrim MLA Trevor Clarke has recently expressed support, his constituency colleague Pam Cameron has voiced her continued opposition. The incinerator plan, first submitted in 2014, would process black bin waste from six councils.
The Infrastructure Department has said the incinerator application is currently being considered in line with planning policy.
SDLP councillor Noreen Mcclelland accused the DUP of hypocrisy. She said: “I have lost count of how many platforms we have stood on where Paul Girvan and other DUP representatives have pledged their opposition to the Arc21 incinerator. Now we see that the same people are privately lobbying in favour of the project. This is a cynical and shameful betrayal of people in North Belfast and South Antrim as well as the community campaign against an incinerator at this location.”
Alliance Party MLA John Blair said: “Local representatives and residents, ... will have many questions to ask if the local MP has steered in any way from his publicly stated position declared from platforms which he and I shared.”
In a statement, Mr Girvan said: “I will continue to facilitate residents, including the No-arc21 group in putting forward their views on this issue and will continue to do so should there be a need in the future.”
I have lost count of how many times Paul Girvan has pledged his opposition CLLR NOREEN MCCLELLAND REACTS TO NEWS OF LETTER