Representation by Karen Harrington
- Date submitted
- 7 October 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Wisbech has problems of poverty and deprivation with a significant transient agricultural working population with, presumably, little local interest. This is possibly why it has been chosen for this project. The town is to be treated as a dumping ground for others' rubbish which will only compound the neglect the area already suffers from. Not only will it be a complete eyesore on our flat landscape, but the emissions will affect a nearby local secondary school, the town and villages beyond, and into the next county of Norfolk. The roads, which have received little or no funding, already struggle to cope with increased traffic, usually heading to the Norfolk coast, and the queues on the A47 can be horrific with traffic tailed back to Guyhirn and beyond. The many lorries carrying waste for incineration will cause further problems: the local infrastructure does not support such a massive project pushed upon us. As far as I am aware there is no support for this in the area: the MP's, County and Local Councils and residents are against it. The application has escaped a local planning decision, and our landscape, effects on our health and roads from this project are instead to be decided remotely from Westminster. We, the local residents, are the ones who will have to live with it and yet our views seem to be ignored and the project continuously pursued by a large corporation from outside the area. The incinerator is not wanted in this small town for so many reasons: health, environmental, visual, lack of sufficient infrastructure, and emissions spreading over the town, nearby villages and neighbouring county borders. Wisbech is not a suitable location for the proposed incinerator. I understand the incinerator will generate over 50 megawatts of power, but at an environmental cost. With a strong tidal river running through the town and surrounding agricultural area, I would prefer efforts to be extended in that direction to produce renewable clean energy from tidal power rather than a polluting, unwanted project as the planned incinerator that will detrimentally affect many living in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.