New Barnfield Hits New Problems

Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Handside & Peartree, Malcolm Cowan has discovered a worrying and startling fact about the implications of the call-in of the New Barnfield incinerator plan by government. The county council have no Plan B as backup if the current plan is thrown out by the inspector, and that they also plan to persist in moving Southfield school this year. If the plan is rejected, the move will have been disruptive and pointless and if approved, it could have been delayed for a year. He says 'It really does look as if the Tory Cabinet is in denial - no plan B means years more uncertainty and extra cost as landfill prices go up. Moving Southfield school this year means a real snub to the children and their parents who have already endured years of uncertainty. It is almost as if they don't believe their plan is going off the rails'.

Speaking about the decision of the Secretary of State to call-in the New Barnfield incinerator application, he said "In a mad world, a note of sanity has crept in. Now at last the merits or otherwise of the plan can be rationally examined by a planning inspector. Having seen the strong planning arguments made against New Barnfield by no less than 3 local councils, not to mention the arguments put forward by the local groups, I would not bet anything on the scheme going through".

"It is vital that the County Council stops any further work on removing facilities from the site, such as Southfield school, as that really would show contempt for the call-in decision".

Technology has probably moved on, the ultra expensive Private Finance Initiative route has become thoroughly discredited, the site is ridiculous and the whole thing needs to be thought out again".