NO TO THE INCINERATOR !

Appleford Parish Council  is working with 'Sutton Courtenay Against the Incinerator' to oppose the planning application for the construction of a £100 million waste incinerator in Oxfordshire. For further information, and to find out how you can help, click the following link:

Sutton Courtenay Against The Incinerator

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Oxon Waste Plan Analysis
The ‘planning’ of Oxfordshire County Council’s incinerator proposal:
Some surprises from the council’s website
         by Michael-Luke Jones

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Appleford
14th Sept 2008

Dear Resident

We are Appleford residents who are working with Parish Councillor Donald Alcorn to oppose the construction of the large mass burn incinerator a few hundred metres up-wind of our village, just across the railway line.

It is great to see so many houses in the village displaying the orange posters and showing how strongly village residents feel about this dangerous proposal. You may have seen the information in the Appleford Pressings September edition and have already written to Councillors Lamont and Belson and to the Planning Officer, as suggested in one of the articles.

We are now writing to share some new information in the hope that you will wish to support in the next phase of the campaign by writing some more letters (or sending emails, or both!)

The planning proposal by WRG will be accepted or rejected by the Planning Committee of Oxfordshire County Council. They will have been sent copies of the letters sent to the Planning Officer. However, you are also entitled to make your feelings and concerns known to all of the councillors on the planning committee by contacting them directly.

We have been advised that councillors pay very close attention to these personal approaches, particularly when there is strong public feeling. A short letter or email with a few strongly expressed points in your own words, even handwritten, will be far more powerful than a photocopied letter which has obviously been mass-produced. On the other hand, if they do not receive any correspondence, they may fairly assume that people are happy to accept the proposal.

The points to be made at this point must be relevant to planning, so attached is a list of suggested areas you might wish to mention. Your comments do not have to be technical – straightforward remarks will be just as persuasive. Also attached is a list of names and contact details for the relevant councillors who include those on the planning committee and those in charge of the relevant areas plus the opposition councillors.

This Oxfordshire County Councillors list is the most important and if you only feel able to write a few letters, it will probably be best to concentrate on this one. However, once you get going, you may feel able to do some more lobbying and it will be very worthwhile to write to the District Councillors on the Vale and the South Oxfordshire District Council Planning Committees to let them know how people feel in Appleford and also to alert them to the danger that the proposal poses to their constituents. Therefore also attached is a table of Vale Councillors and a list of SODC councillors to whom you might wish to write or email. The Planning Committees of both councils are consulted about the proposal by the County Council. We understand that Cherwell Council may well recommend against the Ardley incinerator and it would be fantastic if the Vale and SODC were to oppose the WRG plan.


OPEN MEETING MONDAY 15TH September, 2008
ALL SAINTS CHURCH, SUTTON COURTENAY

Many of you may already know that there is an open meeting on Monday at 7.30 pm in All Saints Church, Sutton Courtenay.

Remember, despite the fact that we are fighting a determined County Council and the huge financial resources of WRG, we can still persuade the County Council Planning Committee to reject this proposal which threatens to damage our health and degrade the area in which we live.


Angela Jones
Geoff and Tessa Smith
Denis and Rachel Gibbs



APPLEFORD AGAINST INCINERATION