On 19 December 2006 the Development Control Committee of Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) discussed the application from Sita (the incineration company) to build an incinerator at Binn Farm near Glenfarg. The Committee dismissed all objections, including 270 letters and a 465-signature petition, and ignored the concerns raised by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).
SEPA stated that as the application stands, they would not grant Sita a licence to operate an incinerator at Binn Farm. In particular they cited the failure to look at alternative options, the failure to make any use of waste heat, the absense of a policy to deal with toxic ash, or to deal with problems of noise, odour, landscaping and construction and biodiversity.
Half a dozen members of the public and two councillors were allowed to address the Committee with their concerns.
Councillor John Lloyd spoke about the serious health problems that have been found amongst people living near incinerators. Other speakers suggested Sita could not be trusted to run the incinerator competently as for 10 years they have failed to deal with the chronic stench blowing across Abernethy from the landfill site they operate at Binn Farm.
These arguments were ignored.
A Sita representative suggested that without an incinerator to reduce the amount of landfill waste, the Council risked annual fines of £5.7m. Michael Gallagher, founder of TEAG, pointed out the fines would only apply to the biodegradable portion of waste and there were other ways of dealing with this. For example Western Isles Council (WIC) rejected incineration in favour of anaerobic digestion (AD), which converts biodegradable waste into useful products such as biogas, fertiliser and compost. WIC are confident that AD will divert 2/3rds of their biodegradable waste from landfill, enabling them to meet the Landfill Directive targets.
This argument was also ignored, as were many others.
At the end of the 'debate' Councillor Lorraine Caddell, Vice-convenor of the Committee, praised the planning officials who had recommended allowing the incinerator and expressed her disappointment at the 'poor' standard of the opposing arguments. The Committee voted unanimously to grant planning permission. It was obvious that they had all made up their minds a long time ago.
The planning officials' report, page 19, states: "An approval of the application shall be notified to the Scottish Ministers because of the Council's interest in the application site as required under the notification of Applications Procedure, 1997."
In March 2007 the Scottish Executive ordered PKC to review its decision to grant planning permission for the proposed incinerator, this time consulting with Fife Council and giving due consideration to the letters of objection.
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