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A campaign for sustainable methods of waste management |
Perth Council ignores SITA's misleading statement to Development Control Committee, 4 December 2011
Chief Executive of Perth and Kinross Council refuses to take action over misleading statements by SITA UK in its application to build a waste gasification incinerator at Binn Farm near Abernethy.
(Return to main Binn Farm page)
Back in 2007 SITA UK was awarded permission to build a conventional waste incinerator at the landfill site at Binn Farm, and was subsequently awarded an operator's license.
Last year the company decided to apply for a change in its planning consent, from conventional incineration to gasification. This coincided with the Government's decision to offer subsidies four times higher for energy produced by gasification instead of conventional incineration.
On 19 October 2011 the Development Control Committee of Perth and Kinross Council met to consider the revised application. When asked for the reason for the change to gasification, company representative Anne-Marie Wilshaw stated:
"We weren't, at the time, able to back any gasification technology but, since then, we have been looking into it. We now put our name to this type of technology and have developed it elsewhere in the country, namely in Surrey."
In the light of such convincing evidence it is perhaps understandable that the Development Control Committee unanimously awarded planning consent for the proposal.
However when environmental campaigners in Surrey heard about Ms Wilshaw's statement, they decided to contact GAINS. They informed us that SITA UK had not developed a gasification incinerator at all - at least not beyond the design stage.
Further, the Advertising Standards Authority had found SITA guilty of issuing misleading publicity material to Surrey residents, claiming that waste gasification was a "proven technology" and was "operating successfully" in Dumfries and Iceland. In fact neither of those sites were operating successfully, and continued to have problems with harmful emissions.
Additionally, the Department of Energy & Climate Change described gasification as:
“. . . emerging and unproven technologies for the treatment of waste biomass and mixed municipal waste where there are number of technical issues to resolve, for example, achieving intended throughput and air emission standards.” [1]
Subsequently GAINS forwarded these concerns to the Chief Executive of Perth and Kinross Council, Bernadette Malone. Ms Malone replied:
"Whilst I appreciate your concerns about the statements made by Ms Wilshaw it is not the responsibility of Perth & Kinross Council to check the validity or accuracy of any claims made by applicants or objectors and cannot have regard to any information which comes to the attention of the Council after the date of determination."
GAINS regards this as a negligent attitude. Council has a duty to protect air quality for local inhabitants. Furthermore it has a duty to ensure a reliable method of waste management. It was therefore foolhardy for the Council to sign a contract with SITA to burn 40,000 tonnes per annum at the proposed plant, when the technology is clearly unproven. In June this year Isle of Wight Council announced that it was seeking alternative waste management solutions because the island's new gasification incinerator had proved so unreliable (it was closed for a large part of 2010 due to excessive dioxin emissions). [2]
In summary we believe:
1. Gasification is an unproven technology
2. SITA UK was awarded planning consent on 19 October on the basis of incomplete and misleading information.
We therefore call on the Council to rescind the planning consent that it awarded on 19 October, and we call on Scottish Ministers to support the Council in taking such action.
[1] Department of Energy & Climate Change, Consultation on proposals for the levels of banded support under the Renewables Obligation for the period 2013-17 and the Renewables Obligation Order 2012, s12.2 - http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/consultation/ro-banding/3235-consultation-ro-banding.pdf