Plans are to go out to consultation
Essex County Council has announced that further plans for the proposed regional waste site and incinerator at Rivenhall Airfield are to go out to consultation - although it appears that this may be over the Christmas period, inevitably reducing the opportunities for local communities to comment.The Stop the Incinerator Campaign is seekign clarification from ECC on the timing, when another major County Council consultation on minerals was deferred until after the Christmas and New Year period.
The County Council has also confirmed that over 600 people sent in written representations to the planning application of which "the majority" were objections. This is a very high number for any planning application. The Stop the Incinerator campaign specifically suggested to residents that they send in letters rather than sign petitions as individual letters carry more weight.
This Friday (19th December) the County Council's Development and Regulation Committee will be considering, yet again, an extension to be given to Golder/Gent Fairhead to sign the legal agreement on their 2007 application. Cllr. James Abbott will be speaking at the meeting (starts 10.30am at County Hall) to request that no further extensions be given as the applicants will have been given 2 years grace by next March if the situation continues - double the agreed period. He will also ask if the committee is aware that the agent for the developer has stated that the 2007 scheme no longer fits the aspirations of the developer (as stated in the 2008 application) and that this therefore raises a big question mark as to his intention to build it at all. Cllr. Abbott will also ask if the committee is aware of the material changes that have taken place since the 2007 application was considered, particularly in regard to the fact that more recent ecological studies have identified that the application site is a much more valuable wildlife site than previously assumed and that a number of legally protected species could be potentially killed, and certainly disturbed, if the development goes ahead.
The Stop the Incinerator campaign is a non-political cross-community campaign to oppose the regional waste site and incinerator proposed for Rivenhall Airfield, which is a site in open countryside with villages around it. These include Rivenhall, Silver End, Cressing, Bradwell, Coggeshall, Feering and Kelvedon. Witham could also be affected.
For further information, including the full 4 page briefing note on the application, please contact
James Abbott
01376 584576
07951 923073
Visit www.bugleonline.co.uk
and www.ukwin.org.uk
