Residents want to clear the air
Fury over biomass centre
Fed- up Overtown residents have hit out at the council for failing to act on their complaints over the biomass energy centre at the new £25m Clyde Valley High.
At last month’s community council meeting held in the community centre, members expressed their anger with North Lanarkshire Council as they claimed they were passing the buck on to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
The soot-spewing boilers at Clyde Valley High School have been a hot topic since plans first surfaced in 2014 with residents claiming the location could have negative health effects.
With Overtown and Waterloo Community Council vice-chairman Jim Brownlie raising complaints with the local authority, he believes nothing is being done to improve the situation.
He said: “I have written to the council in the past and the environmental services but they have not tried to change anything.
“It appears that neither are accepting responsibilty and it is a constant danger when you’ve got young primary school kids walking about.”
One furious member added: “The amount of dust that has appeared on our windows has got worse in recent months and it’s about time something is done to fix this.
“I don’t think they are burning properly any more and we were told they had to shut it down at the start of February because of this. It is a big danger.”
However, North Lanarkshire Council have offered to monitor the quality of the air in back gardens, but they state they have not heard back from any residents on the matter.
A council spokesman said: “We have extensively reviewed the facility through external consultants.
“In a direct response to the concerns over a year ago we offered to set up air monitoring equipment within the back gardens of the houses before the boiler went live, and then take the same testing after to measure any impact.
“To date we have had no response from the local residents about this offer.”