'Pollution-belching monster' or vital waste facility? D-day for incinerator

Published on Monday 23 November 2009 21:58

PLANS to build an incinerator in the centre of Perth will be considered by Perth and Kinross Council today in what the local MP has described as the "most critical decision" to be made in the authority's history.

A special meeting of the council's Development Control Committee is being held in Perth to debate controversial proposals for detailed planning permission for a 100 million incinerator to be built close to the town centre.

Campaigners claim the incinerator's 240ft chimney stack could belch out potentially fatal fumes – claims which have been rebutted by the developers, Grundon Waste Management.

Planning officials are recommending that councillors should reject the application for the Shore Road development on the grounds that the proposed scale, design and appearance of the plant would have a "serious detrimental impact" on the visual amenities of Perth.

But the development has already been granted outline planning consent and campaigners fear that the developers could still be given the go-ahead by appealing to the Scottish Government.

Pete Wishart, the Scottish National Party MP for Perth and North Perthshire, is demanding that councillors vote for a revocation of planning permission at today's meeting.

"The decision about the Perth incinerator is perhaps the most critical decision that Perth and Kinross councillors will have to make," he said.

"Getting it wrong may leave us with a pollutant-belching monstrosity in the centre of our beautiful city, threatening all our ambitions for the future.

"I know that my council colleagues desperately want rid of this proposed carbuncle, but simply voting it down without revoking the original outline planning permission will just mean that it will come back on appeal, and that appeal just may be successful.

"I know that the issue of compensation is the reason why revocation is a tough option. We simply can't gamble on our city's future. Revocation is the stake through the heart that would kill off this monstrosity once and for all."

Ronald Bean, the council's head of planning, states in report to the committee that outline consent cannot be legally challenged. He said: "The basis of the argument for revocation is that the processing of the outline application and the nature of the consent issued was fundamentally flawed and that the outline consent should not have been granted.

"Whilst it is accepted that there were errors in the processing of the application, these do not in themselves provide grounds for revocation."