On Saturday 20th September, local residents who are fed up and angry that Surrey County Council keeps claiming there is little local opposition to the Eco Park waste incinerator, organised a peaceful protest at the site entrance. There was massive local support, with around 400 people, including families attending, to highlight how wrong Surrey is. But why is it coming to Shepperton?
The development of an in county waste disposal facility has been on the cards more or less for the last 14 years, and several sites have been proposed over this time with no success, including Capel, Wisely Aerodrome and Trumps farm.
Surrey ultimately, and out of the blue, settled on the Charlton Lane site as the optimum location for their incinerator sometime around the year 2000. The site was previously 17th in line below other more appropriate sites on their original site selection plan!
The development will include a chimney of some 150 feet tall, that’s the minimum height it must be to avoid exceeding toxic limits at ground level, thus trying to ensure released particles and toxins are not landing on the many schools and homes in the local area..
The toxins that are claimed to be insignificant by SCC, in Spelthorne’s already massively polluted air were too dangerous for RHS Wisley’s plants, and according to County Councillor John Furey who opposed a similar plan in his area and stated “communities and amenities that shouldn’t have had to suffer this.” The same councillor who supported the proposal into Spelthorne! Hypocritical?
Since the inception of this proposal SCC have stated that vehicle movements across the region would reduce, including those into Charlton Lane, however because of a number of setbacks, including having to significantly reduce the capacity of the site, the lorry movements are now the same as they are today – there is no reduction in emissions from traffic, and there will be an increase in pollution from the site when it is up and running.
This experiment in the middle of three villages, in a whole borough Air Quality management Area and with an unknown technology needs to be built in a safe open site away from public access, and Surrey need to stop wasting more money on top of the £124m already spent.
All in all Spelthorne is a poor relation with respect to it’s neighbours, who say one thing and do another.
On Wednesday 24th September, the application is before Surrey planning committee again (4 years late now!) and once again they are expected to ignore massive local opposition for selfish reasons. It is now more likely than ever that a high court challenge will be the only way to kill this off once and for all, and save the local area for future generations, but these are expensive! Satep has already raised thousands of pounds, but we still need more to stand any chance of fighting this. Any donations greatly welcome. Please see www.satep.co.uk or talk with local residents associations about donations. This flawed plan can still be stopped!