Campaigners against the plan for the Portland incinerator say that they are asking as many local people as possible to join a mass protest on Saturday 17th January.
The family-friendly demonstration – expected to eclipse previous protests – will see hundreds of local people at Victoria Square on Portland at 11.30am, from where they will walk to the entrance to Portland Port. There will be a number of speakers to explain objections to the incinerator.
Etienne Stott, spokesperson for Stop Portland Incinerator Campaign (SPIC), said:
“We’re going to show Powerfuel Portland and potential investors into the project that this community is united in resistance to the plan. It’s our health versus their profit. Simple. Investors should know that we will fight this monstrosity every step of the way and it will not be a profitable venture for them.”
The demonstration will come the day after a cross-party parliamentary group, which includes local MP Lloyd Hatton, is to ask the government to suspend the building of all planned incinerators in England – a move Scotland and Wales have already made.
The group of MPs, given a second reading of the Waste Incinerators Bill 1, say that there is already simply not enough rubbish to burn, and that councils have to pay incinerator owners if they do not deliver enough waste. The sponsors of the Bill assert that emissions are worse than coal-fired power stations which have already been shut down in the UK.
Etienne Stott continued:
“The developers claim this project will create 35 jobs, but for Portland and Weymouth, we believe it will be a disaster, for the health and prosperity of communities in the surrounding area, due to pollution from the smoke stack, increased truck traffic and the reputational impact on the tourism industry.
The campaigners claim that the proposed design is uniquely harmful, in that the top of its chimney is actually below the level of residential housing and two prisons. If the wind is easterly, the fumes from burning the proposed household and industrial waste will not go over the heads of people on the island, but directly into their lungs.
Also, there are claims that Weymouth will not be immune from fumes. “The Olympic Sailing Team tells us that the unusual topography of the island already traps diesel fumes from visiting cruise liners in Weymouth Bay. The same effect will push the plume of emissions from the incinerator across Portland Harbour – a world-class watersports venue.”
Etienne – himself a Gold-medal Olympian – says everyone is welcome to the demonstration, which will assemble at Victoria Square on Portland, then walk peaceably to the port entrance in Castletown, to highlight the unsuitable route 80 huge waste lorries per day will take if the incinerator is ever built.
