Press Release
Shore Should Shove-Off With Incinerator Plan - Tom Clarke MP
Tom Clarke MP has come out fighting and unequivocally on the side of residents opposed to Shore Energy’s Planning Application to site a Pyrolysis Plant in the south of Coatbridge. He wants individuals in every community in Coatbridge to be united in their opposition to their town being treated as a dump for waste, but above all he is against the plan on health grounds.
Shore Energy is proposing to build a Pyrolysis Plant in Carnbroe, adjacent to the A8, which they claim is needed for environmental reasons. But the local MP argues that Pyrolysis is another name for an incinerator and if this idea ever gets off the ground it would be dangerous to the health and wellbeing of all residents in Coatbridge, particularly children.
Mr Clarke set out the context of his views when he said:
‘The message I want to get across is that Shore’s Planning Application presents not only a challenge but a health threat to people in every community in Coatbridge. Health consequences have to be considered carefully. In Coatbridge we start from a very poor base as communities like ours contributed to heavy industry such as steelmaking and mining. Recent figures obtained from the Respiratory Open Day were reported in the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser on the 15th October 2008. Lanarkshire has the second highest rate of hospital admissions of people with chronic pulmonary disease (COPD) not just in Scotland, but the United Kingdom. COPD affects people by making their breathing very difficult’.
‘A Pyrolysis plant will emit Nitrogen Dioxide amongst other pollutants adding to the already high pollutant level in this area. Coatbridge has 3,000 individuals who suffer from asthma and they don’t need any more nasty pollutants in the air they breathe. In short, the very last community in Scotland that one would even consider installing a Pyrolysis plant is Coatbridge’.
The MP added: ‘Like incineration, Pyrolysis and gasification are likely to produce air emissions which include acid gases, dioxins and furans, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, particulates, cadmium, mercury, lead and hydrogen sulphide. In plain language it is not known how damaging this concoction of pollutants will be when mixed together. The other significant problem is that the public are dependent on the waste disposal operator to provide such information. Shore Energy has lost the trust of the people of this town.’
The MP added: ‘This is an issue for the town of Coatbridge. It doesn’t matter whether you rent a house in Shawhead or have purchased a house in Carnbroe. If this plant were ever to go ahead the reality is that the fall out of pollutants will spread much wider than both these communities. It is not about the value of property, it is about the value we place on our health as we would all be adversely affected. Shawhead doesn’t want an incinerator in their front garden and Carnbroe doesn’t want it in their back garden. But this is far from a ‘not in my back yard’ (Nimby) dispute. It is much more serious than that. I believe no community in Coatbridge would wish to burden a future generation of children with an incinerator’.
The MP highlighted some of the significant developments that have taken place in recent years when he said: “At Eurocentral there has been huge investment and this Office Park development is accelerating towards an early completion this autumn. At Carnbroe many people have set down roots to raise their families. And the Shawhead Flyover has been developed’.
However Mr Clarke said: ‘The only blight on an otherwise burgeoning landscape in this corridor is the neglect and injustice of failing to upgrade the A8 road. Under Devolution we have been let down very badly. It is quite disgraceful that 45 years on from the commencement of the M8, Coatbridge has six remaining miles that has still to be upgraded to Motorway status. And the vehicles stuck in traffic jams day in day out on the A8 corridor are polluting the air that we have to breathe’.
Mr Clarke said: ‘I have concluded that Shore Energy does not have the confidence of the people in our communities. From day one they tried to dupe residents with a huge Google map that was nearly twenty years out of date. Since then they have deployed a public relations company to resurrect a planning application that has lost all credibility. There is an unbridgeable chasm between Shore Energy and the informed views of residents. In the interests of health and other relevant arguments I am standing shoulder to shoulder with the people who do not want this incinerator. My colleague Elaine Smith MSP is doing likewise and has been very much to the fore in supporting residents during this period’.
‘I also want to take this opportunity to say that it was unworthy of Shore Energy to criticise leading lights of the local campaign group. Maggie Proctor, Marie Maguire and Stephen Tagg are thoroughly decent people who are imbued with integrity and intelligence, underpinned by a determination to have their say about this planned incinerator. At two public meetings I attended they offered informed views on what can only be described as a very complex subject’.
The MP referred to the position of Councillors when he said: ‘There have been restrictions on Councillors who are unable to comment until this matter has been considered under due process. At this stage it is strictly speaking exclusively a matter for the Planning Authority’.
‘I have made no representations to the Council as it has always been my policy not to interfere with matters that are not the responsibility of the United Kingdom Parliament and outwith my locus.
However as the MP I have every right to publicly express my views on an issue that has galvanised an opposition base of nearly six thousand people. At the last meeting of my constituency party I intimated that I would report on this matter before the Council’s planning meeting.
‘I actually believe that whenever people know the true facts about this incinerator and what it can do to our health the opposition from people in Coatbridge will be overwhelming against this incinerator. Therefore all we can do now is await with anticipation North Lanarkshire Council’s considered response to this Planning Application’.