Campaigners welcome incinerator appeal hearing

Campaigners have said they are "delighted" after being granted permission to take their case against the decision to build an incinerator near Dorset's Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site to the Court of Appeal.

In April, the High Court dismissed an appeal for a statutory review into Powerfuel Portland's £150m waste incinerator planning application.

The application was given the go-ahead by the government last September, despite initially being refused by Dorset Council.

The Stop Portland Waste Incinerator (SPWI) group has argued the incinerator would cause air pollution and damage the local tourism industry.

The incinerator is expected to be able to process up to 202,000 tonnes of household, commercial and skip waste a year, creating enough energy to power about 30,000 homes.

The site for the incinerator is on land owned by Portland Port, which previously said the plant was "vital to this port's future" by allowing it to offer shore power to docked cruise ships.

SPWI applied for permission for a Court of Appeal hearing after the High Court failed to grant a statutory review of the decision.

The campaign group has said the Secretary of State's decision "does not satisfy" Dorset Council's Waste Plan and did not properly apply local planning policy, which requires any waste incineration to be in the most appropriate location.

Campaigner Debbie Tulett said: "I am absolutely delighted that our argument that the Dorset Waste Plan has not been complied with has finally been recognised and I have been vindicated for pushing this point all the way to the Court of Appeal."

Opponents of the scheme include Olympic champion Ellie Aldridge, who said "no-one will want to train" at the nearby National Sailing Academy if an incinerator was built.

Dorset Council leader Nick Ireland has also previously said the incinerator would be "throwing out nitrous dioxide, sulphur dioxide, arsenic, nickel, chromium" into the atmosphere and harm the area's tourism industry.

The Environment Agency granted Powerfuel Portland an environmental permit for the incinerator in February after concluding it had met all of its necessary criteria.

The waste management company has said the facility would not burn hazardous or clinical waste.

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