Public meeting to discuss Buttington Incinerator proposals

A community near Welshpool is united in its opposition to building an incinerator near it.

On Tuesday night, May 11, over 40 people logged into an online public meeting to give their views on plans to build an incinerator on the outskirts of Butttington.

The meeting had been called by Trewern Community Council to help them come to an official view on the plans.

Last month Broad Energy Wales, submitted the planning application for a “Energy Recovery Facility” which could produce enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.

The application is seen as a Development of National Significance (DNS).

Because of this the application will be dealt with by government planning inspectors rather than Powys County Council planners.

The 12.8 mega-watt incinerator development includes other infrastructure buildings including a 70-metre-high chimney stack and changes to the roads.

A consultation process allows Trewern Community Council, Powys County Council, councillors and individuals to submit their views on the proposals up to May 24.

Only residents of Buttington, Hope Middletown and Trewern were able to speak at the meeting.

Air quality in the area was a concern, with the added traffic on the road and many believed the chimney flue would not be high enough to disperse pollution.

Some believed it would have a negative effect on the school and future home building projects in the villages.

Christine Ashton said: “This flue can’t actually do the job it’s designed to do.

“The top of the flue is actually at the same level as houses in Middletown, it won’t disperse the pollution into the atmosphere it will go sideways and end up at Middletown.

Frances Butler, said: “On days when we have fog or low cloud, we can see it just sitting over the whole valley and when the wind picks up it comes straight up over our properties.”

The incinerator is supposed to be able to burn 167,000 tonnes of domestic waste a year.

Caroline Clegg asked: “Where is the proof of the need of this incinerator, where are the lorries with the waste coming from?

“Will they be sourcing this large volume of waste in the immediate area, in Wales itself?”

Powys County Councillor for Trewern, Amanda Jenner said that residents for the whole of Powys produce “under 20,000” tonnes of non-recyclable waste.

Ian Thompson said: “Very little of the waste burnt here would come from Powys, there’s no local demand, the bulk of the waste would have to come from a significant distance elsewhere.”

He believed that incinerators need to be built close to where the waste that feeds it comes from.

Others also felt that the proposal would have a negative impact on tourism being close to the A458 road, the main artery for tourists from the Midlands to travel into Wales.

Matt Hart said: “This incinerator is going to be literally the gateway to Wales, it’s not just tourism in the local area that’s going to be affected, this is what will welcome people to Wales.”

Cllr Jenner appealed to all those at the meeting to get as many people as possible to respond to the consultation.

Cllr Jenner said:  “We’re still in a pandemic, and I’ve concerns that we’ve not had face to face meetings.

“I’m worried that there will be people who don’t have access to the internet or are not comfortable engaging through the internet to be able to respond to this.”

Trewern community councillor, Fiona Warburton, who chaired the meeting, said: “Everybody has made the points they wished to, the time has come for us as a community council to take all of that on board.”

Cllr Warburton closed the public meeting so that an extraordinary meeting of Trewern community council could be held to discuss the plans.

Broad Energy have explained that the facility would take up to three years to build, create 300 construction jobs and provide work for 30 permanent jobs once operational.

They add that the facility’s lifespan will be 25 to 30 years and that it would be operational all day, every day,

Broad Energy said: “The vision of the development is to provide a sustainable use for a former quarry area by delivering a bespoke facility to waste management and the generation of low carbon energy.

“The long-term objective is for the development to act as a catalyst for the wider aspiration for the development sire to create an eco-business park.

“The Welsh Government has set the target to become a zero-waste nation by 2050.

“The ERF represents a major step in helping Wales achieve this ambition.”