5:50pm Wednesday 10th March 2010
BRUNNER Mond has officially submitted its plans for an incinerator at its Lostock site.
The soda ash manufacturer, which also has a site at Winnington, says it wants to build a power plant that will burn bio-mass and pre-treated waste to provide electricity for the two factories.
Because the plant will generate such a large amount of energy, it by-passes regular planning laws that would see the final decision lie with Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC). Instead, it goes directly to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), with CWAC involved only as a consultee.
Since it revealed its intentions in October, Brunner Mond has held a series of public exhibitions – which it says showed 92 per cent of attendees understood why the plant was necessary.
Managing director John Kerrigan said: “We have always committed to keeping local people as updated as possible.
“We are pleased with the outcome of the exhibition and will continue to engage with the community over the coming months.”
But action group CHAIN has accused the company of ‘going through the back door’ by getting the application in before the newly-formed Infrastructure Planning Committee (IPC) took over on March 1.
Chairman Brian Cartwright said: “I call it a planning application by the back door. “They have done it to avoid the IPC. The new system involves a much longer consultation process and it’s got a huge backlog so they would have had to wait.
“And Brunner Mond has not fulfilled its obligation. It’s not answered questions from groups such as CHAIN, that represent the public.
But Mr Kerrigan claims CHAIN in fact turned down the offer of a meeting with the company on March 2.
He said: “We are aware that CHAIN has expressed some concerns about our proposal by asking a number of questions “As soon as we were in a position to answer those fully, we invited representatives of CHAIN to meet with us. “Unfortunately, they refused our invitation and as a result we have now responded in writing.”
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