The actual site is the field behind the one in which the horses are grazing
STIFLE has not changed its objectives at all - we were established to fight the plan to site a waste management facility on a greenfield site at Ernesettle which is valued for its location and former (and current) recreational use.
December 22nd 2011
Incinerator Approved by Plymouth City Council Planning Committee.
Vote: 7 Conservative were for approval. 5 Labour were against. Carried 7:5.
The full article is available here here on the Evening Herald website http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/Plymouth-incinerator-approved-Devonport-Dockyard/story-14211129-detail/story.html
The committee heard how the incinerator will sit just 60 metres from the closest home, while 450 households live within 250 metres. It goes without saying that many of us in STIFLE opposed this plan for a Weston Mill Incinerator. We have voiced our concerns in local papers and other media to support the IIW campaigns.
Response from IIW is given on their website at http://www.iiw.org.uk/
The site at Ernesettle is still available as a site to process waste. We need to be vigilant.
STOP PRESS
The STIFLE steering group met on Saturday and have decided to put the STIFLE protest group on hold for the time being.
We will continue to be members of UKWIN (UK without incineration) and will maintain the S.T.I.F.L.E. website and Facebook site. We do not wish to disband the group as PCC has the Ernesettle greenfield site earmarked for waste management until at least 2013, whereas we still wish to see it returned to the community for recreation use. The Budshead Trust hope to be instrumental in bringing this to fruition and would obviously welcome any assistance.
Many of the STIFLE steering group have come to the conclusion, while fighting the SWDWP plans, that incineration is not the best way forward for the 21st century and will continue to oppose incineration in Plymouth, by joining the IIW group which was set up to fight the plan for an incinerator at Weston Mill. We feel that, as the current risks are directed at sites other than Ernesettle, direct support for IIW would be more appropriate.
Therefore we encourage all those STIFLE members who agree with us, to also join IIW in their fight. There is an IIW website and Facebook site. IIW are asking all those people in the area who oppose incineration to meet in the city centre on Saturday 26 February at midday to march in protest, coinciding with the final roadshow by the South West Devon Waste Partnership and MVV Umwelt in the Guildhall about the plans for the incinerator in North Yard.
Thank you for all your support in the fight for Ernesettle. We will keep your names on the database so that we can inform you of any renewed threat and also of any other proposed developments on the Ernesettle site. Please let us know if you do not want us to contact you again.
You have probably heard that the city council is engaging local residents in a "massive consultation exercise" about what developments and improvements we want to see in our area, in February and March.
For Ernesettle, Honicknowle, Whitleigh, Tamerton Foliot, Manadon and Southway this consultation will take place on Monday 14 March in West Park Library from 2pm to 7pm. For St Budeaux, Barne Barton, Kings Tamerton and Weston Mill it will be at St Budeaux Library on 15March from 9am to 7pm.
Information about the process is available at the Plymouth City Council website.
Thank you once again - we sincerely hope that any further news will be positive!
(We are aware that not all our members have email and would be grateful, therefore, if you could pass this information on to any of your neighbours who might be interested.)
Rose Brooks, Joe Ellison, Clare Gibson, Geoff Hillier, Jan Jackson, Geraldine Lane, Stuart Lane, Neil Mawdsley, Bill Pym, Alison Sargent
STIFLE Steering Group
LATEST NEWS
7 February 2011
Saturday 26 February: March Through Plymouth City Centre to Stop an Incinerator being built
Organised by IIW.(The Weston Mill Group)
There will be a protest March through the city centre.
This march is also to lobby the SWDWP Roadshow meeting in the Guildhall.
Starting at 11am outside Plymouth Guildhall, Armada Way. IIW are against Incineration of Waste at any site in the wider Plymouth Area.
SWDWP Final Business Case
South West Devon Waste Partnership has submitted its final business case for the three authorities of Devon County Council, Plymouth and Torbay Councils to consider prior to DEFRA approval. It is available here as a 4Mb PDF file (redacted version for General Public and all but a few Councillors).
This is still subject to approval by DEFRA.
The full article can be read on the SWDWP website here.
29 January 2011
SWDWP Announcement below (extract)
*Please note that the business case mentioned below has 'redacted' much of the specific information.
Energy from Waste business case comes before Cabinet in three authorities.
South West Devon Waste Partnership has submitted its final business case for the three authorities of Devon County Council, Plymouth and Torbay Councils to consider prior to Defra approval.
A presentation on the final business case will come before specially convened cabinet committees of each council, which are being held in public on the 7th February across the region. All three councils have different constitutions, but the decision making procedure will be the same in each case.
"As part of our ongoing communications, we are holding roadshows during February to bring the public up to date with the latest developments on our project, and to listen to people's views. The summarised business case* is also on our website with much more information about the project: www.swdwp.co.uk
The February roadshow dates are:
| 8th February | 2:30pm - 6:30pm | Torbay Town Hall, Castle Circus, Torquay | |
| 9th February | 4:30pm - 7:30pm | Weston Mill Community Primary School, Ferndale Road, Plymouth | |
| 10th February | 2:30pm - 6:30pm | Tamar View Community Complex, Miers Close, St Budeaux, Plymouth | |
| 11th February | 4:30pm - 7:30pm | Drake Primary School, Johnstone Terrace Ope, Keyham, Plymouth | |
| 15th February | 2:30pm - 6:30pm | St Budeaux Community Centre, Wolseley Rd, Plymouth | |
| 16th February | 4:30pm - 7:30pm | Watermark, Leonards Road, Ivybridge | |
| 17th February | 4:30pm - 7:30pm | The Main Hall, Torpoint Town Council, Torpoint | |
| 26th February | 10:30am - 1:30pm | The Guildhall, Plymouth |
26 January 2011
IIW Meeting (Incineration Is Wrong)
A meeting was held at St Budeaux Community Centre. A very concerned group of local residents packed the hall to discuss the current difficulties that are being proposed to build the Incinerator nearby.See IIW website.
January 2011
The SWDWP have announced that their preferred bidder is MVV Umwelt with a proposal to build a mass waste incinerator in the North Yard of Devonport Dockyard, which is actually located in the densely-populated Weston Mill/Camel's Head area of Plymouth.
Although STIFLE was established to fight the proposal to build a waste incinerator on the greenfield site at Ernesettle, our research and reading around the issue has led the STIFLE steering group to conclude that incineration of municipal solid waste is the wrong technology for the 21st century.
A paper by steering group member Geoffrey Hillier, a retired thermal engineer and former worker in Devonport Dockyard, seeks to address a solution to the region's waste problems and was sent to all Plymouth City Councillors and MPs in the expectation of encouraging a debate of the possible options. This paper is available to download as a PDF entitled "STIFLE - Case against SWDWP" here or in other formats in our Downloads section.
As a result of research carried out over the last two years by the University of Plymouth, to look at the biodiversity value of the Ernesettle site a scientific paper was presented at The Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Prague, June 2010, and to the British Ecological Society Conference in Leeds, September 2010. This paper is also available to download as a PDF entitled "Brownfield or Greenfield? An Ecological Assessment of a Vulnerable Greenfield Site" here and in our Downloads section.
Looking over to the Ernesettle site from Saltash
The Ernesettle site:
your suggestions invited
Any kind of waste facilities built here would be in full view of Saltash.
The council still say they want to use the Ernesettle site for waste, but not an Incinerator.
Have you any views on what this land should be used for? Email your suggestions to ernesettle@gmail.com
SUCCESS! 15th March 2010
Plans for an incinerator at Ernesettle have been dropped by MVV UMWELT
Some of the STIFLE Steering Group celebrating at the Ernesettle site: left to right: Sharon, Joe Ellison, Stuart Lane, Geraldine Lane, Neil Mawdsley, Geoffrey Hillier.
The STIFLE committee would like to thank all the members for making this happen as well as MPs and some Councillors. It has been a big effort that has united people from both sides of the Tamar, but there is still work to be done to ensure the Ernesettle site is protected from waste development.
The waste partnership still say that they may use this land for alternative waste schemes, but not for an Incinerator, so we still have to be vigilant. See the Plymouth Evening Herald article.
We have been trying since 2005 to persuade, initially the City Council and subsequently the Partnership, that the Ernesettle site was completely wrong for a major waste management facility, for many reasons. They seemed to plough on regardless simply because the council owns the land. It is the bidders themselves who have come to the same conclusion as STIFLE that this site is unsuitable. How sad that our own City Council, who surely know the area so much better than outside companies, could not have listened to the practical issues being raised and realised themselves that this site should not have been on the list at all. However, the risks to the nearby sites at Weston Mill and also at Lee Mill go on.Background
Devon Waste Partnership have been granted funding by DEFRA to proceed with plans to secure a bidder for a waste management scheme for Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon. A Government inspector has accepted Plymouth City Council's plan to offer land it owns at Ernesettle on the banks of the River Tamar as a suitable site for an incinerator.
Residents on both the Plymouth and Cornish sides of the River Tamar are united in their total opposition to this scheme for many reasons:
- Proximity to housing - the nearest homes will be less than 200 metres away
- Adjacent to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and county wildlife site
- The location at the most westerly point of the county means very long journeys for waste; a more central location would be less-environmentally damaging
- Location in a fog-prone river valley which will inhibit dispersal of the pollution
- High proportion of cardiac and respiratory illness in the local population
- The site was originally earmarked for a community sports facility in an area of deprivation
- The site is adjacent to an armaments store
- The road network is unsuitable for the heavy goods vehicles