Council no objection to incinerator bid in Nobber

Meath County Council has no objection in principle to the proposed meat and bonemeal incinerator at Nobber, it will tell An Bord Pleanala in the council"s planning report on the project. Councillors were told at their monthly meeting on Monday last that the report by council planners, which did not object to the development but suggested seeking further information regarding water services and traffic, would not be altered to take account of councillors" views but would be forwarded to the planning board. However, it was agreed that minutes of the meeting, at which councillors were highly critical of the project, would be attached and forwarded to the planning board. College Proteins, Nobber, has applied to An Bord Pleanala for a combined heat and power plant and associated landfill at College Road, Nobber, as a Strategic Infrastructure Development. Cllr Eugene Cassidy told Monday"s meeting there had been 300 complaints to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and four prosecutions against College Proteins. He said that the company"s planning history was one of applying for retention of structures rather than applying for planning permission before developments began. 'This is the kind of character reference we can give this company,' he told the meeting. Cllr Bryan Reilly said he was concerned at the ash that would be produced, most of which would be landfilled on site the more hazardous fly ash which would be transported off the site. 'We have a clean environment here and we don"t want to damage it with an incinerator,' he said. Cllr Michael Gallagher warned that dioxins from the plant would get into the food chain and already some supermarket chains were indicating that they wouldn"t take food produced within a certain radius of an incinerator. He said that people in the area had no confidence in either the company or the EPA. Cllr James Mangan was worried that the fly ash transported off the site could be brought to the landfill at Kentstown. Cllr Michael Lynch said that what was being proposed at Nobber was not an incinerator but an upgraded furnace. Cllr Joe Reilly said that the company had applied for permission as a strategic infrastructure development, a process designed to take planning permission out of the local authority"s remit. The application was for a plant with the capacity to process in excess of 105,000 tonnes of biomass per year, and Cllr Reilly asked if there was any proof that the company could fill the gap between the 32,000 tonnes currently being processed each year and the 105,000 tonnes mentioned in the application. Cllr Anne Dillon Gallagher said that there would be dioxin emissions and dioxins were a very harmful carcinogenic substances. Cllr John Farrelly said that the council should meet with the two government ministers from this area on the issue. Newly elected council leas-Cathaoirleach Jenny D"arcy was concerned at the company"s record for prosecutions and complaints from the public and asked how the council proposed to monitor emissions.