Press Release
Tom Clarke MP Calls On First Minister To Show Respect To Local Residents
Tom Clarke MP joined hundreds of protesters at Saturday’s demonstration on the Shawhead Flyover against the planned Pyrolysis plant and called on the First Minister to show respect to the protesters.
Tom Clarke said: ‘I want to publicly thank the key organisers Maggie Proctor and Councillor Jim Brooks for arranging the protest which offered a perfectly legitimate opportunity for people to express their views. Today’s turnout was very impressive and gave me another chance to speak with and listen to the views of people who were present. Everyone was opposed to the planned Pyrolysis, but more than that, many people also felt the process route and ultimate determination of this planning application either ignored their deeply held views or insulted their intelligence, particularly about health implications’.
‘Thousands of residents in communities such as Carnbroe Shawhead Kirkshaws and Hattonrigg have signed the petition stating they do not want this incinerator. Not one single Councillor on North Lanarkshire Council wants it.
‘The two questions posed to me were: Why should Coatbridge be turned into a dump? And what meaningful action is the Scottish Government taking to protect our communities?
Mr Clarke continued: ‘Of course as far as this incinerator is concerned the buck stops with the Scottish Government. That is why I take this opportunity to publicly invite the First Minister to visit my constituency and listen to the sincere views expressed by decent hard working people who value their health and that of their children. I will arrange a venue and if he wishes we can have a public debate about the Pyrolysis Plan and about why he and his Government by their evident inaction are failing to listen and take on board the genuine views of local residents’.
Mr Clarke concluded: ‘I will not stand idly by and see our town - where I have lived all my life - turned into a dump by people who don’t even live here. This planning application has aroused a sleeping giant of local activism growing rapidly in their determination to protect their communities from this unwanted unnecessary and unacceptable incinerator’.