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North Devon incinerator plans ‘mothballed’

According to Ricky Knight, a Barnstaple town councillor and member of Devon Residents Against Incinerators (DRAIN):

Devon County Council have ‘mothballed’ plans to build an incinerator at Seven Brethren Bank, Barnstaple.


DRAIN’s Facebook page declares:

This is excellent news, and will allow us to (literally) breathe more easily! It is difficult to assess the impact DRAIN has had on this decision, but ultimately,the aims of the campaign have been met. No doubt there will be attempts made in the future in North Devon, and many proposed incinerators are still in the pipeline, but as in Cornwall, there won’t be one in North Devon.

A leading DRAIN activist has said:

We need to get the debate going and achieve a change of waste policy at County and District levels. I assume this opportunity will come when consultation occurs with the forthcoming revised waste strategy in 2010.

Meanwhile fellow waste campaigners, including members of Stop the Incinerator Fouling Land at Ernsettle (Plymouth) (STIFLE), continue to oppose incinerator plans in South Devon, with Ernsettle, Lee Mill and Devonport all still in the frame. Visit the STIFLE website to keep track of the campaign in South Devon.

In a telephone conversation with UKWIN Coordinator Shlomo Dowen, Ben Jennings, Devon County Council’s Waste Manager, confirmed:

The 60,000 tonne per annum Exeter facility has secured its permit and construction is expected to be approved shortly.

There are three bidders who between them have proposed a total of four “solutions”, at four locations in Devon. These are:

  • Viridor
  • Mvv Umvelt – who are proposing a “Combined Heat and Power” (CHP) facility at the docks of the naval base’s North Yard at Devonport, and another (incineration) facility at Ernsettle, and
  • Sita who are proposing an incinerator at Devonport Dockyard’s South Yard.
  • Revised bids are due to be submitted by March 2010.

Because the funding for the new College site is not now available, and because the College was to have been the primary heat user, plans for an incinerator in Barnstaple have been put on hold.

Mr Jennings also reminded UKWIN that Devon County Council is achieving some of the highest recycling and composting rates in the country, thanks largely to separate collections of food waste for anaerobic digestion (AD) or in-vessel composting.

One thought on “North Devon incinerator plans ‘mothballed’

  1. Dr S Prokop,BSc,MBBS,MRCPswych

    I do not know where the hunter killers will be decommissioned,but you certainly don’t need any so-called “low-level” nulear waste burned at proposed dockyard sites (saves them transport of dangerous waste).The governemnt model for nuclear safety is deeply flawed,and anyone interested should visit the LLRC site.My old Nobel prize winning Prof said all the safety baselines were wrong because of how the original Hiroshima/Nagasaki research was done (or not done !).If you choose to ignore fallout dusts in Japan,or lie about them at Bikini or Nevada you put rubbish in you get rubbish out,even if it saves you millions in compensation.The Brits invented viral theory population mixing as the causes of their leukaemia clusters..brilliant!!Remember the KiKK German child leukaemia clusters when you hear the next local public health doctor telling you your children are safe,and reflect on the tens of incinerators that are licensed to burn radioactive waste.

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