Waste company reacts to Ford incinerator '˜health fears'

This month, Ford Parish Council wrote a frank letter to villagers, condemning plans by Grundon for an incinerator large enough to power 29,000 homes.

The council urged residents to join them and Bognor Regis and Littlehampton MP Nick Gibb in a demonstration against the facility at the Flying Fortress, tomorrow (Friday, January 17) at 10am.

But in a bid to reassure residents, Grundon has stressed the technology that will be used will be under stringent environmental controls and would have no detrimental effect on the health of nearby villagers.

Andrew Short, estates director at Grundon, said: “Although we appreciate that not all people will support our application we would hope that information used to object is based on fact and information that is relevant and up to date.

“Studies referred to by some relate to historical data and are not relevant to modern technologies operated under modern management practices and under the very tight environmental controls and regulations that are applied and enforced by the Environment Agency.

“Recent studies have shown no health effects and this position is confirmed both by the Environment Agency and Public Health England.”

The letter by the parish council said renewable energy should not ‘come at the cost to the well-being of us and future generations’.

Under the plans, 250,000 tonnes of waste would be transported to the site each year.

However, Grundon emphasised that the infrastructure it was proposing for the site was ‘neither speculative nor unexpected’.

The company said it welcomed residents’ opinions but stressed that the site had been under ‘a rigorous and democratic’ process of consideration for more than four years through the local waste plan, which itself was at a very late stage of consideration.

Anyone wishing to comment on the plans can do so by visiting Grundon’s website www.circulartechnologypark.co.uk or by calling 0800 112 3540.