Forest fire on hold

Government Office issues holding order, preventing Nottinghamshire County Council from granting planning permission to Veolia’s Sherwood Forest (Rainworth) incinerator application.

Government Office for the East Midlands (GOEM) has stepped in to prevent Nottinghamshire County Council granting planning permission to Veolia to build a 200,000 tonne per annum incinerator in a Sherwood Forest village. The residents of Rainworth and all around Mansfield in Nottinghamshire are celebrating as news of the holding order seeps out from the Nottingham-based GOEM.

In an e-mail message sent to Rainworth Parish Councillor, Linda Tift, GOEM’s Marion Downs confirmed that:

A Holding Direction was issued yesterday [Thursday 5th February 2009] to allow the Secretary of State further time to reach a decision. You will be notified of the decision once it is reached.

Councillor Linda Tift explains:

Residents of Rainworth, members and supporters of People Against Incineration (PAIN) were pleased to hear that the Government Office of the East Midlands had issued a Holding Order on the proposed Rainworth incinerator application. It was never acceptable that Notts County Council, in partnership with Veolia, should be judge and jury on their own application.

Even more concerning was the lack of care, consultation and
consideration given to local communities concerns and objections.
Hopefully, faith in the democratic process will be restored when the Secretary of State makes a robust investigation into the application and recommends a public inquiry.

This Direction effectively puts the planning application on the back burner for Veolia and Notts County Council, while the Secretary of State does a thorough investigation and reaches a decision for a public inquiry. So still a way to go but certainly we are now on the right path.

Shlomo Dowen, Co-Chair of the Legal and Research Team for People Against Incineration (PAIN), says:

This decision by the Government Office for the East Midlands (GOEM), to halt the granting of planning permission for the Sherwood Forest (Rainworth) incinerator, takes the matter out of the hands of Nottinghamshire County Council. This in itself vindicates PAIN’s view that there is a case to answer. We now expect the Secretary of State to look closely at all the evidence over the next month and to decide to hold a public inquiry.

The incinerator inquiry could start just as the County Council elections are being held.

PAIN’s hard-working Legal and Research Team has been preparing for this public inquiry for years now! We have a great deal of new evidence ready to submit to the Planning Inspector.

Veolia and Nottinghamshire County Council could spare everyone the time and expense of a public inquiry by dropping [Waste PFI] Contract B and abandoning plans for this unwanted and unnecessary incinerator.

In separate but related news, a decision on the proposed expansion of Nottingham’s Eastcroft incinerator is due in the next fortnight. The troubled Eastcroft facility, already suffering from technical difficulties and insufficient material being delivered for burning, triggered the public inquiry after Nottingham City Council refused permission for an additional 100,000+ tonnes per annum capacity.

With the prospect of further applications for waste incinerators throughout the region, GOEM has been asked to justify the huge overcapacity that might result from approvals.