A protest march organised by Olympic sailor Laura Baldwin, through the community group she co-founded, Portland 4 the Planet, went ahead on Saturday 16th October with more than twice as many people than last year’s event making a stand against the proposal for a waste incinerator at Portland Port.
Hundreds gathered in Victoria Square to listen to the organisers who gave several short speeches, before marching to Portland Port returning to the square a while later.
Paula Klaentschi told the crowd “This is just so important”, expressed through tears before thanking a long list of respected organisations for objecting to the applications. Paula made clear that incineration is not good for people’s health, the environment, our area of outstanding beauty or our economy.
Paula continued, “The south west already has a surplus in waste incineration and a new plant is opening at Bridgewater. The 15mw of power offered could come from the national grid supplied by ONE wind turbine. No lorries, no emissions, no toxic bottom ash, no using 56,000,000 litres of clean water every year, no importing waste by cargo ships from unconstrained locations.”
The Rev Brother Alasdair Kay, from All Saints Church, Wyke Regis, was next on stage and he delivered a powerful and important message, communicating the threat we face due to the climate crisis.
Portland Town Councillor, Giovanna Lewis spoke of the need to stand up for the poor people who will be worst affected by this incinerator, the ones that can not afford to move away.
“Like many others, I’m concerned for people’s health. There is no commercially available filter for incinerators that is capable of removing all the nasty gases and particulates, particularly the fine particulates, which go straight into the blood stream when breathed in. As an area of high deprivation, many on Portland with ill health, or little children, will have no choice but to put up with this risk – they don’t have the money to move away, and/or change their lives. And why should they?”
Speaking on stage as a concerned mother living on the hill behind the proposed site and pretty much at the height the 80m chimney stops, co-founder of Portland 4 the Planet Laura Baldwin drew the crowd’s attention to look on the hill where two people let off non-toxic smoke flares to give a visual to show the height the chimney will stop (note: they were 13m higher due to homes being at 80m). This showed the smoke lingering for quite some time as it slowly dispersed in the light southerly wind.
Laura Baldwin continued: “I have some good news, Wales has declared a ban on any new waste incinerators! Scotland is seriously considering following suit. Denmark is phasing them out.
“Dorset Council’s stated aim is to shift to a circular economy and for the Council itself to be zero waste by 2040. Let’s give a shout out to Dorset Waste Partnership for the very good service they provide.”
The proposal by Powerfuel Portland is for an Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) capable of exporting around 15MW of partially renewable low carbon energy, enough to power around 30,000 homes. According to Powerfuel Portland’s website the site already has planning permission for an energy plant which would have used either vegetable oil (including waste oils) or waste rubber crumb from tyres.
Related item: In September 2020 KeeP 106 spoke to Steve McNab of Powerfuel Portland, and Lucy Grieve from ‘Stop Portland Waste Incinerator’ group:
Portland Waste Incinerator – for or against?…
Photo credit: Dave Penman
