to think incinerators should not be built on GREEN BELT LAND

[WaferThinPaperSkin]

A planning application has been submitted for permission to build a gasification incinerator in Elmbridge on green belt land.

The proposed site is right next to RHS Wisley and access will be from a road that already has real traffic problems.

Wtaf is the point of labelling land as green belt if you then allow, of all bloody things, an incinerator to be built on it?

Obviously, there are other (very significant and worrying) issues with incinerators in general and I would not want one built near me at all but I do understand they have to be built somewhere - but why pick a green belt site ffs?

Info and a petition is here if you're interested

I don't think it is ridiculous.

All the families that we know there have swimming pools and tennis courts. (my DSs went to school in the area and have quite a few classmates in the area).

Google Earth doesn't lie.

You are clearly only looking at a very small part of the area. Yes, there are areas around here where people are incredibly rich and have such things but that doesn't mean that everyone does. As I said it was a complete, unjustified, generalisation.

I'm pleased for you that you have such wealthy friends but that does not make them a good representation of the general populous of this area (which I'm sure will be quite obvious if you looked at Byfleet on Goohle Earth, rather than St. George's Hill).

I was looking at the hinterland of Silvermere golf club, not st George's Hill.

/shrug

I still think it is a bit rich to beg on a national website for your Nimby project.

They can't build it in the middle of town or on a housing estate, can they?

I would rather it was built on green belt land then not built at all.
Because the alternative is landfill, and that really does consume green belt land. Plus produce more greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution (like groundwater contamination) than incinerators.
I'd like incinerators to be sited in the middle of urban areas (even if that means backyards, yes I'm saying that sincerely, albeit with hollow laugh because Lord knows folk want to cling to their modern creature comforts without recognising the price that has to be paid, somehow, somewhere).

Should put coal-fired power stations & stonking great big wind turbines in middle of urban areas, too.

I live in a small town (not UK) we have our own incinerator on the small industrial estate behind the supermarket. It's less that 800m from our house. It's as much a needed community service at the primary school, the doctors surgery and the supermarket.

You can't put incinerators in the middle of towns, and it's madness to put them in the middle of nowhere where the rubbish has to be trucked for hundreds of miles. Green belt brownfield seems a good solution. (according to pp this site is not currently a grassy meadow).

Thanks Kladdkaka - that's interesting to know. So, I take it you feel the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? What disadvantages (if any) are there to having one so close?

So daft question, why can't one just be put in middle of a town? Plenty of towns already have tips pretty close to their centres.

Because lots and lots of people would complain, and if the filters fail they can kick out some nasty stuff. Dunno whether there are any good reasons not to put them in the middle of town, but it's politically unacceptable.

Honestly, none that I can see. I can't see it from our house, too many trees in the way. We don't have mountains of transport thundering through as it's just for our municipality. It's also relatively small as this is a small town, 1/10th the size of the one in the city where my husband works.

Is it outline or full planning? If full there should be an Environmental Impact Assessment accompanying the planning permission that you can view on the website. This will assess all impacts including air quality, noise, visual etc.

I should add that you pay seperately for waste disposal here. The more you recycle, the less you pay. The result is that everything that can be recycled is and only what's left goes up the chimney.

It's politically unacceptable to put a waste incinerator anywhere. Ditto with onshore wind and most other energy-generating schemes.

blacktea as far as I understand, it's just an application at the moment. Will they be doing an environmental impact assessment as standard procedure?

Don't be sure that they won't put it next to house or schools.

Our county council want to site one right next door to my son's SN school and backing onto people's garden.
They rejected a perfectly good site just off a dual carriage way in favour of this site.

persnalclown you really have to wonder what the hell they are thinking when they do this sort of thing (the one you're talking about is obviously much worse than the one I'm talking about). You can bet that none of the people who will decide on the site live there or send their children to that school!

A waste incinerator is listed on Annex 1 of the EIA regulations which means that legally an EIA is required in order to get planning permission to build. But if it's only outline planning then they should be doing one in due course.

Have you seen the application on the planning portal, that should tell you the status of the application

It looks like the consultation period has expired but the committee date is in Oct (whatever that means!!!) although it also says that the status is "out to consultation"

Waste needs to be disposed of somehow. I would rather have it on a greenbelt site than in the middle of a housing estate.

If you go into the planning objections process accusing those making the decision of being biased because they don't live in the area they'll likely listen less sympathetically to your arguments.

You need to look at advice on planning law and form your objection in terms of the law. Those making the decisions can't refuse an application on any basis other than thibgs relating to planning law.

jolly I do agree they have to go somewhere, I suppose I am being naive to think they could find an ideal site for it. Wherever they put it, someone will object. If there is no where more suitable in the Elmbridge area I will just have to suck it up!

I would never put that on a formal objection, however true I think it may be.