Dorset Council has accused the Government of ignoring residents’ views by approving a new waste incinerator on the Jurassic coastline.
The local authority had refused plans to build an incinerator on the Isle of Portland, raising concerns over pollution, the impact of extra lorries and negative effects on the landscape.
Developer Powerfuel Portland appealed the council’s decision, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has now given the plans the go-ahead.
Council leader Nick Ireland said the decision was a double whammy for residents who had faced disruption caused by the Bibby Stockholm, which was also objected locally.
He added: ‘They now face the prospect of a large-scale incinerator being built on their doorstep, in the middle of a UNESCO World Heritage site, with all the consequences that go along with it.’
The £150m incinerator will burn household, commercial and skip waste, and will reportedly create enough energy to power about 30,000 homes.
The MCHLG said secretary of state Angela Rayner agreed with a planning inspector who found no convincing evidence of detrimental impacts to biodiversity, water quality, or residents’ health.
She also agreed that the incinerator, which would have an 80m chimney stack, ‘would have no harmful landscape or visual effects from receptors on land or at sea’.
Analysis published today found that a proposed tax on the carbon emitted from burning waste could cost councils billions over the next decade.
