Campaigners ramp up the pressure against incinerator
Protestors against a Calderdale company’s new application for an environmental permit for a controversial incinerator have ramped up the pressure.
Worried about health impacts, the campaigners asked questions at a meeting of the full Calderdale Council about Calder Valley Skip Hire’s new application to operate a small waste incinerator at its Belmont, Sowerby Bridge site.
They also lobbied members of Calderdale Climate Action Partnership as members arrived at Halifax Town
Hall for a meeting days before the deadline for official objections to be lodged.
At full council, Jane Pugh and George Pickles both urged the council’s cabinet rather than a council officer determine the application for the permit, which is necessary to run the incinerator.
The company previously obtained planning permission for the incinerator on appeal after the council refused this, and last year a planning inspector rejected an appeal citing the council’s failure to determine a previous environmental permit application.
Ms Pugh said she was not satisfied by a previous response to a question she asked at the council’s cabinet about who would determine the application.
She said the response was “superficial and patronising” as a cabinet member said their “hands are tied, passing it off as a central government instruction.”
“This is not true.
“The Planning Inspectorate have told me that the council is the regulator and has responsibility for this decision,” she said.
Cabinet had made a permit decision – a refusal
– over the company’s proposals for an incinerator at its Mearclough site, also at Sowerby Bridge, said Ms Pugh.
“The council or cabinet should make the decision as it is an executive function of local choice, it is also a key decision, which must be taken by cabinet as it is likely to be significant in terms of its effects on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more wards in the area of the authority.
“Advisers advise, politicians decide,” she said.
Mr Pickles asked a similar question and added: “It should in any event not be taken as a delegated decision due to its significance and need for democratic openness and accountability,” he said.
Coun Steven Leigh (Con), whose Ryburn ward would be among those affected by the incinerator’s siting in the Ryburn valley, told councillors: “If members are truly committed to public health and the environment, then you would do what you can to stop this from happening.”
He asked cabinet members to consider “prioritising the needs of local residents when making a decision about granting the environmental permit.”
Cabinet member for resources, Coun Silvia Dacre (Lab, Todmorden), responded that it was not a key decision.
She said although cabinet had considered a previous