Representation by Sarah-Fay Berry
- Date submitted
- 15 November 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
To whom it may concern, I wish to make my objections to the proposed mega incinerator for Wisbech. The effect on air quality: I work with patients who have life limiting illness at The Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre in Wisbech. Many of them suffer from respiratory disease as part of their pathology, and both they and their families will be negatively impacted by any emissions coming from a mega incinerator in the local area. There is no safe limit for air pollution. The UK Legal limits for particulate matter, are twice those set by the World Health Organisation. According to The British Lung Foundation: ‘Exposure to PM2.5 can cause illnesses like asthma, COPD, coronary heart disease, stroke and lung cancer. There is also evidence that links PM2.5 to low birth weight, diabetes and disease such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.’ Air quality has never been more important in a post-Covid world, where it will directly effect disease outcomes. The effect on the local area: the proposed site is disturbingly close to schools, dwellings and agricultural land, risking contamination of our food supply with dioxins and furans. Wisbech has significant poverty and it doesn’t go unnoticed that historically incinerators are often located in areas of deprivation. Wisbech cannot sustain the proposed 300 lorry movements on it’s road infrastructure. I have personally commuted on the A47 since I began working the Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre in May 2019. The volume of traffic has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, when there were regular tail-backs from Rings End to Guyhirn. I had to take different routes on a daily basis dependant on the traffic. Many of these routes along tiny fens roads, are barely wide enough for regular vehicles to pass. When accidents and breakdowns occur, the roads are brought to a standstill. MVVs lorries will be stuck in gridlocks along with the rest of the traffic. Local services and businesses will be negatively impacted by an increase in traffic. I am concerned about our ambulances, transport and community nursing staff delivering essential end of life care to patients in their own homes around the fenland area. The additional exhaust fumes will just compound poor air quality. Climate and Ecological Emergency response: I do not agree with incineration as a suitable alternative to landfill. Furthermore, Wisbech is a totally unsuitable site. However, I believe that carbon capture should be mandatory. It may be expensive but the cost of C02 to life on this planet is far greater. The government has declared an Ecological and Climate emergency in 2019, so consideration of any process emitting C02 is baffling. We are visibly seeing the effects of this disaster all around the world, floods, fires, wars and famines and we are on the tipping point of much worse. The IPCC report shows that 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial age is pretty much locked in, and feedback loops of self-reinforced warming has begun. Recycling and Zero waste: Landfill is a serious problem, which must be tackled at source. This planet cannot sustain our compulsive consumption, and building incinerators as a way to deal with it, is the wrong approach. We need to be reducing waste at production level; recycling and composting more, buying less, mending and repairing as a viable option. Whilst we need education around the true cost, and we can all ‘do our bit,’ the responsibility should not be placed solely on the consumer. Often green options are too expensive and difficult, and leave the poor priced out of making conscious choices. We need strong government legislation, focusing on genuine recycling, biodegradable and zero waste packaging. Producers and supermarkets focusing on what they sell and how they package it. We need clear accountability, without green washing or creative carbon accounting in relation to these serious issues. These incinerators are the cathedrals of human greed and compulsive consumption. Energy recovery from waste is a low return. Their continued creation will hinder progress towards real greener options, while we focus on feeding these beasts. We need systems change.