As an MP you can never quite fully plan your week. Last Thursday, like most residents I heard of proposed plans for a biomass plant on the Cheney Manor Industrial Estate. Rodbourne Cheney Councillor Des Moffatt quickly organised for an urgent meeting to spread the word, a campaign group was formed and local residents were mobilised ahead of Tuesday’s Swindon Borough Council planning meeting.
As a local resident myself, my concerns were two fold. Firstly, the lack of public consultation, especially on such a controversial application. We as local residents not only need an opportunity to raise questions and challenge findings, but we deserve to be consulted. Secondly, there are serious concerns about the wider implications, in particular the unknown health effects of such a plant.
Yet there are countries, Norway for example, who have hundreds of these plants and with them, extremely strict controls on emissions that require complex particle filters to ensure that nothing harmful is released. So I was expecting from Hippofan – the company looking to build it – a comprehensive report addressing all these concerns in a bid to win residents round.
Instead they presented a report that was at best shoddy. It was littered with references to Yorkshire and did not engage with our substantive and justified concerns. If they couldn’t even change ‘Yorkshire’ to ‘Swindon’ in their poor ‘copy and paste’ exercise, how can we have 100% confidence in their technical data which is meant to reassure us?
Thankfully, in response to the wide public opposition, the Council agreed to defer any decision, allowing local residents sufficient time to properly challenge the proposals, and that they certainly will! Cllr Des Moffatt and the residents are right to do so and I will support their efforts. I hope this overwhelming opposition will lead to Hippofan to simply walk-away, rather than to press ahead with their unwelcome proposals.
I’d like to congratulate Oliver Donachie for winning the Haydon Wick by-election last week. Oliver fought a positive campaign and I know he and his family were exceptionally proud to have won with such a thumping majority. Having spent 10 years as a Swindon Borough Councillor prior to being elected as the MP, I know what a fantastic and rewarding opportunity this is for Oliver and I have no doubt he will be a hard working community representative, an asset to the Council.
Finally, I hope the nervous students (and parents!) who got their A Level results yesterday got the grades they were hoping for. Our schools and colleges got excellent results, a real testament to the hard work of all students. Whether you are off to university, into vocational learning or work, I wish you every success!
