Dear Sir,
During the past weeks, my husband and I have been studying much of the paperwork involved with the application by Fornax for the already built Incinerator on Merchant Park and found so many worrying anomalies between the application for planning permission, the Operating Techniques and Beat Available Techniques and the requirements of the Environment Agency, not to mention the disappointment that Durham County Council, who we thought originally did the right thing by refusing planning permission initially, actually refused it on the weakest of reasons – not enough people being employed for the size of the facility – when it should have been refused because of the hazards to human health, being so close to the living, working town of Newton Aycliffe.
Air Dispersion Modelling – In the document detailing the direction of the prevailing wind for the area of site of the Incinerator, Fornax have chosen to use the weather data of the prevailing wind direction from Leeming. Fornax have stated the prevailing wind direction as South Easterly in their planning application. The correct weather data of the prevailing wind direction, should have come from Teesside Airport weather station, which is more in line with Newton Aycliffe and doesn’t have a big hill interrupting the wind direction to Newton Aycliffe as Leeming does. The correct direction of the prevailing wind is South Westerly. This means any discharge from the Incinerator stack, in a South Westerly wind, will be heading directly over Newton Aycliffe/Woodham/Copelaw Housing Development and Aycliffe Village. Although the address is Heighington Lane, this is very definitely a Newton Aycliffe issue!
In addition, the Environment Agency do actually have clear instructions in the operation guidance on how to prevent the production of dangerous gasses from the incinerator stack and it is clear when comparing the Operation Techniques and Best Available Techniques document, that the Environment Agency documented instructions are not being followed and consequently public health is clearly not a priority of Fornax. The more we study the documentation, the more it becomes clear, that the bare minimum of attention is being given to human health, animal health and the surrounding countryside.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if Fornax would do the right thing and capture all the gasses and recycle them so there are no emissions into the air. It is possible – but it is expensive, and why do something costly, when a company can rake in more profit at the expensive of life itself?
Name and address supplied.