NEWS AND EVENTS
Over the next few months we have plans for a number of events and will have some exciting news for you. And when the application is finally published we'll let you know here. Please check back regularly.
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On 4 September 2011 more than 2000 residents of Newton Mearns and beyond marched to Fairweather Park and participated in a hugely successful rally. Local film maker Paul Darroch captured the key moments of the event and has edited them onto a short but memorable film, which can be viewed here. Our thanks to Paul for a really excellent piece of work which fully captures the sentiment of the participants at the event.
More than 2000 residents of East Renfrewshire and beyond marched in protest against plans to build Europe's largest incinerator on greenfield land at Newton Mearns. The protest march ended at Fairweather Park, where local politicians, campaigners and school children addressed the crowd. The climax of the rally was the release of almost 1000 balloons to demonstrate how far deadly emissions from the incinerator could travel. We would like to thanks all the supporters who turned up for the event and signed up to our newsgroup. If you'd like to get involved or hear more about the plans please drop us an email atinfo@dumptheincinerator.com.________________________________________________________________________
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The legal expertise provided by Brodies will be added to an entire spectrum of skills and experience represented within the campaign group. Individual campaigners include lawyers, civil engineers, process control consultants, chemists, waste management and transport experts, management consultants, an applied thermal combustion engineer, business analysts, architects, academics and auditors. The majority of professionals have volunteered their services free of charge.
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On 4 September 2011 more than 2000 residents of Newton Mearns and beyond marched to Fairweather Park and participated in a hugely successful rally. Local film maker Paul Darroch captured the key moments of the event and has edited them onto a short but memorable film, which can be viewed here. Our thanks to Paul for a really excellent piece of work which fully captures the sentiment of the participants at the event.
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A request submitted to East Renfrewshire Council under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 has uncovered documents prepared by ‘Lifetime Recycling Village’ (LRV) and their agents which reveal startling new information about plans for Europe's largest waste incinerator a short distance away from Newton Mearns.
The documents reveal that the developers behind the incinerator have made no “material” changes whatsoever as a result of the public ‘consultation’ they held in February and March of this year when submitting a pre-application notice for the massive incinerator project. This was despite the fact that Neil Gallacher, Managing Director of LRV, had said that local residents’ thoughts on the proposals “will be taken on board as we prepare our planning application.”
Graham U’ren of Dundas and Wilson, the planning and legal advisors to LRV, said in a 2 August 2011 e-mail that (LRV) “…has made a number of changes to its plans to accommodate comments received from the public and consultees…..We do not believe that the changes made are material changes to the scheme on which the PAC (pre-application consultation) was based.”
It has also come to light that LRV's promise to recycle 40% of the million tonnes of waste they will handle each year can't be met without them buying more land at Barrhead and creating a subsidiary site.
In Graham U’ren’s words, LRV “…now requires further MRF (materials recovery facility) accommodation to that which can be contained in the Loganswell site and is looking at sites in the Barrhead area.”
This additional facility is apparently necessary even though the proposed site of the main complex at Loganswell Farm, less than two miles upwind of Mearns Primary School, is intended to accommodate the largest ever incinerator constructed in Europe over an area equivalent to 27 international rugby pitches.
Critics say this is because LRV's plans are so focused on creating an enormous incinerator, which will require specially imported virgin woodchip to function, that there simply is not enough room to provide a full recycling element beside it.
Harry Stewart, spokesman for the East Renfrewshire Against the Incinerator Group said:
“Yet more contradictions wrapped in weasel words are being uttered in relation to LRV’s plans. In the very same paragraph it is claimed that LRV have changed their plans in response to the views of the public, it is confirmed that no substantive changes have been made at all! It would seem their so-called consultation was the sham we always suspected it of being.”
Commenting on the revelation about a second facility, Harry added:
"It's time to drop the pretence; they should stop calling themselves 'Lifetime Recycling Village' and adopt a more accurate name, like 'Life-ending industrial incineration complex'.
“They have paid so little attention to the much-trumpeted recycling element of their plans to the extent that they are in the crazy situation of having to build yet another, entirely separate facility just to meet their claimed targets. This is proof, if proof were needed, that their recycling claims were just a figleaf for getting a massive incinerator built on cheaply bought greenbelt land.
"Now we have the prospect of massive waste trucks making their way to Barrhead and causing all sorts of problems to the local community there. Also, they would have to use the less than suitable road network between the secondary Barrhead site and Loganswell, piling on yet more congestion and pollution and making sure that both communities suffer big time."
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4 September 2011
More than 2000 residents of East Renfrewshire and beyond marched in protest against plans to build Europe's largest incinerator on greenfield land at Newton Mearns. The protest march ended at Fairweather Park, where local politicians, campaigners and school children addressed the crowd. The climax of the rally was the release of almost 1000 balloons to demonstrate how far deadly emissions from the incinerator could travel. We would like to thanks all the supporters who turned up for the event and signed up to our newsgroup. If you'd like to get involved or hear more about the plans please drop us an email at
20 August 2011
Protest march and rally organised for Sunday 4th September, 2pm at Mearns Primary School
Please come along and support this protest rally against the incinerator. Meet at Mearns Primary School at 2pm on Sunday 4th September, then we will walk down Ayr Road and Crookfur Road and assemble at Fairweather Hall. There will be a number of speeches, and entertainment laid on for the kids.
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15 August 2011
Local campaigners unite with legal experts to fight proposals for Europe’s largest incinerator
Concerned local residents and businesses have come together to engage an eminent planning law firm in their battle to stop a developer building Europe’s largest waste incinerator next to their community.
The East Renfrewshire Anti-Incinerator Group has instructed “Brodies LLP” to help guide residents from East Renfrewshire and South Glasgow through the planning process in relation to the proposed ‘Lifetime Recycling Village’, which developer Brian Kilgour wants to construct at Loganswell Farm, Newton Mearns, a mere mile and a half upwind of the country’s largest primary school.
The proposed incinerator complex would be equivalent in size to 27 international rugby pitches and would be topped by fourteen 200 foot tall chimneys. The developer wants to process 1.5 million tonnes of rubbish onsite, most of which would be burned and would have to be transported by 30-tonne trucks traversing through the area every three minutes, 24 hours a day.
Group spokesman, Harry Stewart, said:
"We are delighted to instruct the eminent planning law firm, Brodies, as well as retaining a leading QC, to guide us through the planning process and help us articulate the community's objections to these inappropriate and utterly misconceived proposals.
“Our message to Brian Kilgour and politicians is that we will do everything it takes and not rest until this blight on our community and threat to the health of our children is dumped.”
The legal expertise provided by Brodies will be added to an entire spectrum of skills and experience represented within the campaign group. Individual campaigners include lawyers, civil engineers, process control consultants, chemists, waste management and transport experts, management consultants, an applied thermal combustion engineer, business analysts, architects, academics and auditors. The majority of professionals have volunteered their services free of charge.
Mr Stewart added:
“Brodies’ input will invaluably strengthen the submission we make to any forthcoming public inquiry or judicial review.
“Despite the range of expertise we can already count on, we also call upon all other professionals who are concerned about the incinerator project to scrutinise it independently and offer us feedback.
“We would like to thank the many individuals and local businesses who have already donated time and money to support us. I ask others who want to save our community to make a donation to the campaign, no matter how small, and, if they can, come and join us in this crucial fight for our future.”
ENDS
For further information please e-mail info@dumptheincinerator.com
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. The East Renfrewshire Anti-Incinerator Group’s website is located at www.dumptheincinerator.com
2. The website contains a full time line and detailed description of the Lifetime Recycling Village incinerator proposal.
3. Local campaigners are deeply concerned as incinerator would locate the largest such facility in Europe close to residential areas and upwind of Mearns Primary School and the southside of Glasgow as a whole. Principal concerns include:
· Fourteen 200 foot chimneys will spread potentially lethal emissions across the area – the substances released by incinerators are known to cause cancer and are particularly harmful to children who grow up with long-term exposure to them;
· 30 tonne trucks full of industrial and commercial waste will arrive onsite every few minutes, clogging up local roads and generating pollution;
· 1.5 million tonnes of rubbish will be drawn from across central and lowland Scotland to this site and the majority of it will be burned;
· Designated greenbelt land will be lost forever and local watercourses and soil potentially polluted by massive effluent tanks;
· The existing and potential leisure, tourism and amenity uses provided in the area through cycle routes, open countryside and golf courses will be ruined;
· Established local employers will be put out of business and many jobs lost – with dubious claims from LRV about the number of jobs the incinerator will create.
4. The principal developer for LRV, Brian Kilgour, has a criminal conviction following a SEPA investigation which found him personally responsible for the illegal dumping of waste by his previous business, ‘Planet Waste’.
(See http://www.sepa.org.uk/about_us/news/2009/waste_offences_cost_ayrshire_w.aspx for details) 