Anti-incinerator campaigners to take fight to Norfolk's County Hall

Campaigners fighting plans for a mega-incinerator on the edge of West Norfolk are planning a protest ahead of a forthcoming county council meeting.

Wisbech Without Incineration (WisWIN) are rallying their supporters for the protest which is planned ahead of the authority's next meeting on March 28.

The demonstration has been planned amid a new row over opposition moves against the scheme, which would be just half a mile from the West Norfolk boundary.

Five county councillors, including two representing Lynn divisions, have written to the authority's chairman, Penny Carpenter, to demand an extraordinary meeting under the council's constitution.

They want a debate on a motion stating: "This Council supports the All Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution’s call for a moratorium on all new large-scale waste incinerators."

The APPG published a report last year raising concerns about the impact of burners.

Leading the call is independent councillor Alexandra Kemp, who represents the Clenchwarton and Lynn South division.

She acted after the Conservative-led council failed to put an anti-incinerator motion from the opposition on the agenda either for this month or next month.

She said: "County Hall has again refused to put our incinerator motion on the agenda because of County Hall’s rigid interpretation of a seven month rule under which similar motions cannot be debated again for seven months.

"County Hall said the motion is “ similar” to the September incinerator motion, but it is quite different as it is about the All Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution’s report calling for a moratorium on incinerators.

"It is a sad indictment of democracy in Norfolk that the administration is trying to prevent the incinerator motion being debated at the meeting. It is time to stand up for democracy."

Four Liberal Democrat councillors, including Gaywood South member Rob Colwell, are backing the call.

Ginny Bucknor, one of the leaders of the WisWIN campaign, is calling for as many people as possible to attend the protest at 9am on March 28.

She said: "The important issue is that several Norfolk county councillors have asked if we would take our campaign to their council meeting.

"This is extremely important. At their last council meeting they deferred their decision. Why does it matter?

"If they vote against the company’s plans, then Wisbech would not be taking Norfolk’s waste and MVV Environment Ltd, who want to build the incinerator, would find it difficult to justify their plans."

An MVV spokesman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it will request permission for the incinerator from secretary of state Kwasi Kwarteng “in the next few months”.

It has previously claimed the APPG “only considered evidence from a narrow field of people who have consistently maintained an anti-incineration position over many years.”

They pointed to research from Public Health England, which suggested that “any health effects, if discernible, would be very small”.