Final push to halt waste transfer station plans

Jul 6 2012 By Lawrence Poole

CAMPAIGNERS against a proposed waste transfer station for a £200m incinerator are staging a final push to try to help quash the plans ahead of a key planning hearing.

The application for the waste transfer station in London Road East between Amersham and Chalfont St Giles is due to be heard on July 31 by Bucks County Council’s planning committee.

If approved the Council Depot site could have 50 trucks transferring 300 tonnes of waste six days a week to the Calvert incinerator.

FCC Environment’s (formerly WRG) plans for the incinerator and another waste transfer station at High Heavens have already been approved.

Protesters have concerns about extra traffic, noise and environmental impact, while Natural England has joined Amersham Town Council and Chiltern District Council – which owns the land and must lease it to BCC for it to go ahead – in raising their opposition.

The Wasters group has intensified their protest by contacting over 5,000 people through newsletters and racking up 430 names on a petition.

Campaign group leader Andrew Blatherwick said: “We need to get our message across and fight this blight on the AONB and our community.

“The group has had a lot of success in building support against this proposal and have had a large response to our website and not one person who supports the scheme. Chiltern District Council has objected as have The Chiltern Society, Chilterns Conservation Board and the parish councils, schools and their parent teacher groups.”

Lawrence Brown, who lives near the site, said: “We won’t give in and I’m glad campaigners are keeping up the pressure – it’s going to have a major impact on our lives and I think people are finally waking up to that fact.”

Little Chalfont Parish Council chairman Brian Drew said the council were concerned about traffic issues. He added: “We’re looking at it on planning grounds, so we’ve got a slightly different stance to the campaigners, but we back what they’re doing and are happy a local group is making a stand.”