Anti Portland waste incinerator campaigners launched £45,000 fundriaser
It's to commission technical and legal experts
Campaigners fighting plans to put a waste incinerator on Portland have launched a fundraising appeal.
Stop Portland Waste Incinerator are trying to commission technical and legal experts to respond to planning documents put forward by Powerfuel Portland.
To do that they say they need to raise £45,000 in the space of a few weeks.
On their website they say:
"Powerfuel, the developers, will be dropping 'revision documents' into Dorset Council Planning any day now. There is a short turnaround of approximately 30 days for us to comment and object. The documents will be lengthy, complex and contain much technical detail.
"As in the first round of Planning, we again need to commission specialist consultants and also specialist environmental legal advice to scrutinise the documents and lodge valid and effective objections."
On their website they claim,
"The proposed plant is so large it will probably have to import waste from far beyond Dorset. It will emit totally unacceptable amounts of greenhouse gases and pollutants."
Powerfuel say the waste burning plant planned for Portland Port would generate enough electricity to power 30,000 homes.
The scheme is supported by the CEO of Portland Port, Bill Reeves.
He says that having the facility on site will maintain the Port's competitiveness, secure its viability for decades to come, will protect existing jobs and bring new ones to the area.
“Cruise lines who are keen to demonstrate their environmental credentials will, in the next 5-10 years, get to a point where they demand that any port that takes their visits provides shore power. About 30% of the world’s cruise liners are currently shore power enabled and all new cruise ships are shore power enabled.
"To provide shore power through the national grid would require a major upgrade to the network onto the island, costing £10s of millions.
“If Portland Port cannot provide shore power, we risk losing the cruise line business and all the tourist spend that the local area benefits from."