Newton Mearns - 2000 join in march against million-tonne waste plant, 5 September 2011
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FIGHTING TALK: MP Jim Murphy addresses crowds in Newton Mearns. Picture: Steve Welsh

JASPER HAMILL

Glasgow Herald - click here to read article on Glasgow Herald website 

5 Sep 2011THOUSANDS of angry residents marched through the streets of a Glasgow suburb yesterday in protest against plans to build a massive waste incinerator.

More than 2000 protesters gathered for the march and rally in Newton Mearns, where a developer wants to build a huge waste-burning plant.
Clutching placards with slogans like “inciner-hate” or “see you later, incinerator”, protesters sent a powerful message to Brian Kilgour, the developer behind plans to open the £640 million Lifetime Recycling Village (LRV) at Loganwell on the outskirts of the town.If the scheme goes ahead, it could be used to incinerate more than a million tonnes of waste a year – significantly more than the 30,000 tonnes produced annually by East Renfrewshire – and campaigners fear lorries could go through the area every three minutes, day and night.

They also fear noxious fumes will be carried over Newton Mearns, although the developers deny this.

Residents hope to gather enough support to block any planning application.

The developers have so far stalled on applying for permission to build, but they are expected to file an application later this year or early in 2012.

Jim Murphy, MP for East Renfrewshire, helped to organise the protest.

He said: “When we began organising this demonstration, people told us they could not remember the last protest in Newton Mearns. Perhaps it was the suffragettes or some other protest back in history. But we were told to expect 200 people and there are 2000 here today. It is a fantastic turnout.

He added: “Newton Mearns should not become the focal point of all Scotland’s waste. This plant would be close to people’s houses and one of the biggest schools in the country.”

Protesters included two young girls who spoke at the rally alongside politicians and campaigners.

In her first-ever public speech, 12-year-old Rhona McCallum, from Mearnskirk, said: “I urge all local people to talk to their friends and family, so the community can come together and stop this monstrosity being built.”

Jessica Eagers-Hardy, a 33-year-old housewife and mother of three, leads a group called Mothers Against The Incinerator.

At the rally she said: “I have three reasons for opposing this plan and they are called Josh, Matthew and Richard. It is them who will be affected by the plans and it is them who be affected by pollution from the trucks and the incinerator.”
The incinerator is a new design which, protesters say, is untested. The owners of the Lifetime Recycling Village have not operated such a plant before.

If planning permission is granted and the development goes ahead, it is claimed the site would have chimneys 200 feet high.

It will use a biomass power plant to power a furnace, which the developers say will burn rubbish from 11 local authority areas stretching from Cumbernauld to Kilmarnock – not the whole of Scotland as locals fear.

Developers insist it will create 700 jobs for local people, but campaigners have pointed out that similar plants in America employ fewer than 100.

The developers were recently forced to withdraw a claim that the wage bill for the site would be £95 million, which would have meant workers would have been paid £135,000 a year.LRV managing director Neil Gallacher admitted the wages were more likely to total £16m.After the march yesterday Harry Stewart, a 62-year-old interior designer who is spokesman for the East Renfrewshire Anti-Incinerator Group, said: “We will be able to raise enough money to take this all the way to the European courts. We need £100,000 and I could easily raise that from local people.“We have been living under the shadow of the planning application for too long, but will continue to fight. We will not go away.”

The Lifetime Recycling Village could not be contacted to make a comment yesterday.

It has previously said it would adopt a “good neighbour” policy and offered to buy out local homes for more than the market price.