Residents flock to meeting to oppose Barrow biomass plans
Last updated at 08:42, Wednesday, 23 May 2012
HUNDREDS of people attended a public meeting where plans for a new biomass power station in Barrow met united and passionate opposition.
The meeting in The Forum on Friday evening was called to discuss Centrica's proposal to replace its ageing Roosecote gas-fired power station with a biomass plant which would burn wood to generate electricity.
Tony Jarvis, Centrica's head of thermal power projects, was part of the panel and faced a barrage of comments from worried residents, whose main concerns centred around emissions and the long-term impact on people's health.
Another panelist, John Woodcock, Barrow and Furness MP, also came under fire for past comments when he backed the biomass plant.
Mr Jarvis said Centrica would not build a plant if the company thought it would damage people's health.
But the mood was summed up near the end of the meeting, when former Barrow councillor Jim Hamezian said: "I can assure you the people here are not going to give up."
See Monday's Evening Mail for the full story.
First published at 21:09, Friday, 18 May 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
one thing that did come out from friday's meeting was tony jarvis saying pallets would also be burnt. The only wood previously mentioned was virgin wood and wood pellets.This is yet another new piece of evidence that other substances could be burnt. when asked about the toxic waste Mr. jarvis did not know where it was going. One thing is for sure it would travel along cumbrian roads.The rest of the waste material would be made into black bricks which would be used in the building industry. No mention where the waste is going to be made into bricks. This sounds like a lot of transport issues to me. The chimney was reported by Mr Jarvis to be the same as two diesel cars running and yet it takes a lot of lorries to carry the waste are these the two diesel cars mentioned?.
View all 21 comments on this article
Have your say
Why do people come to the assumption that 200 people turning up at a Biomass meeting are all against the proposed plant. Many may have been neutral members of the public, attending to gain information to make their own educated assessments of this project. Unfortunately it degraded into a political battle and the main issues were lost into insignificance. Mr Woodcock has bowed to the pressure of the minority and surprising now changed his opinion. It appears he is trying to regain the faith in his constituency but at the cost of addressing the true facts.
Posted by Power ON on 22 May 2012 at 19:21