12 YEARS OF HARD WORK FOR THE FREEMANTLE WARD

Dear Resident

I have been your local councillor for the past 12 years and on 22nd May I am standing for re-election.

I have always worked hard to represent everyone in the area and to get things done and make a difference. For me this is the best part of being a councillor. It’s a job I love and which I put my all into and I hope after May to continue to represent you and the area I grew up in.

We have great community spirit in the area and some really active Resident Associations, Neighbourhood Watches and Community Groups. I have enjoyed supporting them over the years and I am confident that in the years to come we will bring about a lot of positive improvements for the area.

After May I want to see through the improvements to the Civil Service Sports Ground. Let’s finally get it opened up for local residents and schools.

I am also keen to work with residents’ groups in drawing up local neighbourhood plans to protect the area from inappropriate developments and ensure that future developments are in keeping with the area and have proper parking.

Thirdly, I want to help ensure that residential areas are shielded from the impacts of the docks; this means better communication from the port, more trees to screen the docks and improving the local air quality. It also means fighting inappropriate developments like the Biomass Power Station.

I look forward to meeting you during the election campaign and if ever I can be of any help please let me know.

Best wishes,

Cllr Jeremy Moulton

Sulphur Plant Approved By Council's Planning Committee

The City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel this morning considered the application for the Sulphur Plant in the Western Docks.

I am very disappointed to report that the application was approved. Click here for a link to the Daily Echo’s coverage: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10446477.Sulphur_boss_faces_council_over_plans/

I had hoped that the decision could be deferred and further investigation be carried out regarding safety concerns and the environmental impact of the plant. I had asked that independent consultants be engaged to investigate these matters, in light of the fact there have been no other applications of this nature anywhere in the country and that there are no other such plants in the UK. I made those points to the planning committee but sadly the decision was taken to approve the application.

I am now keen to ensure that any other such applications for the docks are properly scrutinised and that local people are informed in the first instance.

The western docks are becoming more and more industrialised and this is a concern for people locally.

In July I will be holding a meeting at the Civic Centre to specifically look at planning issues in the docks, resident communication and how we can do more to shield residents from noise from the docks.

Sulphur Plant: Local Meetings

The city council has organised a meeting on:

Wednesday 1st May at the Freemantle CE Community Academy in Mansion Road, 7pm - 9pm. 

Representatives from the City Council, the developer - Oxbow Sulphur and Fertiliser, and local councillors including myself will be present.

In addition Oxbow are holding their own drop in session:

Monday 29 April 2013 at the Freemantle CE Community Academy, between 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm

Planning Application for Sulphur Plant in the Docks

There has been Daily Echo coverage of a planning application for a Sulphur Pellet Plant in the West Docks and I know residents will be very concerned about possible noise, smells and traffic.

I am hoping that there will be a public meeting very soon and that the company applying for the planning permission will attend to answer questions about the proposed plant.

I can also confirm that the application will be heard by the council's Planning and Rights of Way Panel. This is a public meeting where residents can speak and raise their concerns in person. It is likely to be on 28th May and I have persuaded that council to extend the deadline for resident comments to 10th May. 

The planning reference is 13/00123/FUL and the full details can be found HERE on the City Council's website.

Residents were not informed about the application by the council, as because this is an application in the docks, they are not legally required to do so. I think this is quite wrong. The planning reports talk about the impact of the plant, citing individual addresses, and yet those properties were not contacted! I am asking that in future the council contact residents when there are docks applications that might impact local people. 

We have the threat of the Helius Biomass power station and now this new application and so residents are rightly concerned and should in my view be properly kept informed. In this case it was only because of an eagle eyed local resident who saw it on the council's website, that the application came to light.

My Written Submission to Helius

I have just made my written submission to Helius. The deadline for responses to Helius about their proposed power station is the 3rd August. All resident comments have to be in before or on 3rd August and need to be sumbitted to enquiries@southamptonbiomasspower.com.

Below is the submission sent by myself and Cllr Parnell:

Dear Sir

We are writing as local councillors for the Freemantle Ward to put on record to you our formal objection to your revised plans for a Power Station proposed for the Western Docks. We have also made representations to the City Council at the Planning and Rights of Way meeting held on 24^th July.

Consultation
We believe that your pre application consultation has been inadequate and flawed from start to finish. Your initial announcement was first made to the media rather than to the City Council and its elected representatives, appearing in the Southern Daily Echo on 6^th March 2012.

You failed to act upon the recommendations of the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel, which in their meeting on 17^th July made several requests. They asked that you extend the area in which you hold consultation meetings to Shirley and Old Redbridge, You failed to do this. You also failed to produce proper information on fire safety should your scheme be built. This is again despite being asked to do this at the Planning and Rights of Way meeting and despite there actually being a huge fire at the time of the meeting at a scrap metal storage site literally next to where you propose building a wood burning power station. The fire was so significant it was visible for miles and nearby neighbourhoods were thick with smoke. The blaze took Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service a day to put out. In light of this and also in light of the fact that there was a fire at a biomass power station recently in Tilbury, to then not provide full information on fire safety is totally unacceptable. This is a significant public concern which you have chosen not to address.

Your consultation has centred on trying to encourage residents to choose between one of three designs. This is clearly an attempt to present your scheme as a fait accompli rather than directing the public debate on to the issue of whether power station on this site is welcome or not. We have attended all of the public meetings held in Southampton and we have had this complaint made to us by residents repeatedly. Indeed Paul Brighton of Helius, at the planning meeting on 24^th July, tried to make the point that one design appeared to date to be the most favoured of the three. This is a serious distortion of the true state of public opinion.

Finally we feel that the photographs of the proposed development that you have supplied do not properly reflect how the development might look if built. You have moved the buildings and site location slightly compared with your previous scheme that you consulted on in 2011. However you have not changed the locations from where you have taken photographs. This is most starkly illustrated by the photograph showing the bottom of Foundry Lane. In last year’s consultation this looked down on the huge boiler house and caused enormous upset amongst local people. You have moved the boiler house now to near the end of Regents Park Road but continue to use a photograph of the bottom of Foundry Lane rather than providing a similar view from the bottom of Regents Park Road. We feel that this is a deliberate attempt not show how large the site would look from this location.

We therefore feel that your consultation has not been open or honest and it appears to us that you have tried to pay lip service to public consultation rather than really try to engage with local people and stakeholders.

Location
The proposed site is directly opposite a residential area. Roads in Freemantle are a mere 250m from the site. Due to the site’s close proximity to housing the proposed power plant will undoubtedly have a serious detrimental impact on the lives of local residents. Anecdotally we have been advised that your plans are already beginning to blight the area with residents struggling to sell their properties or finding that their properties are being significantly devalued.

Cllr Moulton is a governor of the local school, Freemantle Academy. Hence we know first hand from many parents in the area how they are worried about the impact of the power station on their community. The worry is that families will not want to bring up children in an area over shadowed by an enormous power station and will start to move away or not move into the area. This will have a profound knock on effect on the school.

The draft Hampshire Minerals and Waste Plan specifically says that the site you have chosen for your proposed scheme is not suitable for very large developments, namely category 4 and 6 developments. Your scheme therefore directly breaches one of the council’s core planning policy documents. We would like to endorse the objection made by the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel which objected to your scheme at its meeting on 24^th July citing this as a key reason for objecting.

 

Size
The proposed scale of the plant is far too large and out of context with its surrounding structures. Indeed it will be the biggest building on the city skyline, dwarfing the terraced housing opposite. Its sheer size and mass is out of character with the area. It will dominate the view of those coming into the city by road or rail from the west, the residential areas across Southampton water bordering the New Forest and the 1.4m cruise ship passengers travelling up and down Southampton water. The new police building in Southern Road, that opened last year, was meant to be a landmark gateway building. However all people will see when approaching from the west will be the power station.

Some residents have suggested to us that if the power station was much smaller, perhaps more on the scale of the District Energy Scheme in the city centre then proposals for the site would be more acceptable. However, other concerns would need to be addressed. Observations have been made that perhaps the only reason you opted for such a large scale site of 100MW capacity was not because you planned to operate at this capacity, but felt that a more favourable result would entail if you bypassed the local planning process in order to submit to the Planning Inspectorate. Hence it is important that local views are not disenfranchised to effect an unfair advantage to the applicant.

We would like to endorse the objections cited by the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel which objected to your scheme at its meeting on 24^th July citing the size and scale of the proposed development as unacceptable.

Economic Impact
Neighbouring the development is the premier shopping development of West Quay with the new £150m luxury shopping development of Watermark Westquay due to open in 2013. On the waterfront is the proposed £450m development of Royal Pier by Morgan Sindell. The economic revival of Southampton will be placed in jeopardy, as developers will struggle to find tenants to occupy these premier sites with a huge eyesore dominating the surrounding skyline. Southampton is one of the most deprived urban areas in the South East and is fundamental that inward investment is secured to enable job creation in the area. There are thousands of new jobs now in jeopardy.

Design
The proposed designs of the scheme are dreadful. They are functional and lack any architectural merit. They are completely out of keeping with the Victorian terraced houses and docker cottages bordering the site or the nearby attractive 1934 Solent flour mill that greets workers and visitors entering Dock Gate 10 to the port along West Bay Road.

Pollution
A major concern of residents is the adverse impact on air quality. The area already has very low air quality with all the nearby industry and traffic. The power station will further reduce the air quality. The aim should be to improve air quality. The suggestion that it might be within particular standards, if true, does not change the fact that the air quality will be worse and this will have a heath impact on local residents. One only has to walk around the area to see the build up of soot on cars and window ledges. The city centre location is densely packed being home to thousands of people and with the local Freemantle primary school being close by. One can imagine people with asthma and other health problems will be adversely affected. To the North East of the area is Southampton Common, a site of Special Scientific Interest with a fragile habitat with the largest population of the internationally rare great crested newt. You have made reference to the possible need for mitigation measures on the Common in your Technical Document. However I cannot find any details of what these are. Would you please provide further details regarding this?

Noise

The power station will operate 24 hours a day and local residents will be subject to continuous noise pollution. It is not necessarily the operating noise of the facility itself but the conveyors carrying the fuel source onto the site and loading into the burners. There is already considerable noise pollution and over many years we have had complaints from neighbours who are affected by it.

Traffic
If a power station is to be built in the docks, then all the materials should be shipped through the docks and not brought by road. When one considers that a single lorry movement equates to 30 tonnes of load then when the proposal is for 800,000 tonne capacity, then the road impact could be enormous. The Millbrook roundabout and Millbrook Road West are already very congested. The link road into the city is recognised as one of the key roads in the country yet it remains the responsibility of the Council to maintain something that it can ill-afford. The new City Depot has recently been built off Dock Gate 4 this has added further traffic pressure to the area. This route is the main entry point into the city for tens of thousands of daily shoppers to West Quay and IKEA, commuters and visiting football fans. Your plans include no measures to mitigate the impact of traffic on the community. There are no suggestions to have a separate docks road off the M271. Measures like this would help should you bring materials by lorry.

Fuel Source
We have considerable doubts that wood bio mass on this scale is sustainable. The amount of fuel proposed is enormous in comparison to the UK output of wood. Indeed from research we understand that there is no spare capacity to meet the plant’s proposed requirements. Inevitably the vast quantity of wood will be sourced from abroad. Hence the so called green credentials of this technology are dubious to say the least. The impact on carbon emissions of transporting it from around the world will be considerable. A more locally sustainable, smaller, power station using waste wood and local coppicing would surely be more environmentally friendly. What guarantees can you provide that all your wood will come from an accredited source, indefinitely? What steps have you taken to secure viable quantities of fuel?

Heat and CO2
No firm provision has been made to recycle the heat produced from the burning of the fuel. Nor has thought been given to the release of the CO2. Hence these by-products of the combustion are being wasted. Combined heat and power plants are now common place in large glass house nurseries around the UK such as Thanet in Kent and Isle of Wight, where the green credentials of burning fuel are well known and documented with heat used to warm the glasshouses and CO2 provided to the plants.

Community Benefit
Once the construction phase has ceased, which no doubt be undertaken by specialist workers from outside the city there will only be 40 jobs created by operating the plant. Given the specialist nature of your operation it is unlikely that most of the people employed will actually live in Southampton. Hence there will be limited economic benefit to the city outside of the income earned by ABP for leasing the site and cheap power source provided. For such a major multi-million pound development, you have not offered any planning monies to benefit the local community, facilities or infrastructure improvements to the key arterial M271/Millbrook Road route into the city. This is incredibly surprising and demonstrates a complete disregard for your corporate social responsibility.

Whilst this is by no means an exhaustive list of arguments to oppose this application, we do consider that the concerns we have raised are real and warrant that this application be rejected.

Yours faithfully

Jeremy Moulton
Brian Parnell
Councillors for Freemantle Ward

We Need The Financial Backing Of The Council to Stop Helius

It is very clear to me from the public meetings that I have attended over the last month that Helius are fully committed to pushing ahead with their plans for an unwanted, giant power station next to homes in Freemantle and Millbrook. City Councillors have been vocal in their opposition to this scheme but sadly we do not have the power locally to stop it, as Southampton City Council will not be the decision maker.

Councillors have backed the idea of a referendum on the issue, to be held on November 15^th. I am quite sure that this public vote will voice an overwhelming ‘No’ to Helius’ scheme. Residents have already gathered a 3,500 name petition and after the vote Helius will be in no doubt about what people think.

The referendum is due to be held at the same time as election day for the new Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and so it was hoped that the costs for the vote would be tiny. Rather alarmingly we are now being told that it could cost the taxpayer £45,000 and I have expressed my concerns that this is lot of money. That said if it helps stop this dreadful monstrosity wrecking the local community that I was elected to represent then it has my full support.

In the end though, if Helius do push ahead with a formal application for their power station, the decision will be taken based on matters of planning law and public policy. I am certain that Helius will have expensive experts arguing their case and will be pumping money into ensuring that they get their scheme approved. Local residents have done an amazing job in taking the fight to Helius, harnessing local opposition and making some really powerful arguments about why this power station is ‘too big, too close and not green.’ However as Councillors, if we want to stop Helius, we need to ensure that we give residents more than just warm words of encouragement and back them properly and put the skills and resources of the City Council, a half a billion pound a year organisation, full square behind them.

At the last Full Council meeting I proposed that the Council set aside provisions in its budget to hire a top planning barrister to argue the case of local people and to ensure the residents have the resources to take on Helius on a level playing field. This is precisely what councils around the country do when they are serious about winning in situation like this. I was very disappointed that I didn’t secure these funds at the meeting. It was a real missed opportunity, especially as Paul Brighton, Helius Energy’s Planning Director, was sat in the public gallery listening to the Council debate. It would have ensured that residents were supported with the funds they need and it would have sent a very strong message to Helius that they have a huge fight on their hands in Southampton. I am going to keep pushing for the support of the Council Administration on this issue. Speaking to other Councillors after the meeting I was reassured that they understood how important this issue is and how this decision will be critical in deciding whether or not we can stop Helius’ scheme.

Conservative Action All Year Round

Our Work This Year Alone...


April 2012
Freemantle Spring Clean underway. Attending local residents' association meetings promoting our new No Cold Calling Zones. Meeting with the police to discuss the problem of street drinking.


March 2012
Secretary of State for Education officially opens Freemantle Academy's new Junior School building. Funding secured for improvements to the Civil Service Sports Ground. Residents updated on Helius' latest Biomass plans. New planning rules for Houses in Multiple Occupation come into force.


February 2012
Civil Service Sports Ground saved from development. Council Tax frozen once again. New Play Park for Albany Road announced. Conservative action with a campaign to tackle Dog Mess on our streets.


January 2012
Banister School rebuild given the green light. Residents updated about Southern Water upgrade to Waste Water Treatment works in the docks.

Fire In The Western Docks

Pictures of the docks fire taken at lunch time today

A fire at a scrap metal site in the docks has been blazing all day with smoke and fumes covering much of nearby area. The smell from the fire has been terrible and you could taste the fumes in the air earlier today. Thankfully late this afternoon the wind changed direction and blew some of the fumes away from houses but it is still impacting massively on local residents. Click HERE for the Southern Daily Echo report on the fire.


Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) have been battling the blaze and hopefully will have it under control very soon. The City Council has published a statement from HFRS on its website. 


The site of the fire is right by the proposed site for the Helius wood burning biomass power station. It is ironic that the fire started on the same day that Southampton City Council's Planning and Rights of Way Panel was considering the Statement of Community Consultation from Helius for the their proposed biomass power station.


Following the biomass fire at Tilbury recently, fire safety is a key concern of local people and of those campaigning against this proposed development. The fire in the docks today will only serve to underline these very real concerns.

Southampton Conservatives Will Fight Latest Helius Scheme

Yesterday Helius Energy announced a new scheme to build a massive biomass power station in the Western Docks, close to houses in Regents Park and Freemantle.


Southampton Conservatives have vowed to fight this new scheme, which will be hugely damaging for the local community. Council Leader Royston Smith yesterday stated, "we have had no consultation at all about this new proposal which has come completely out of the blue and we will move heaven and earth to stop this dreadful scheme."


Conservative Councillor for Freemantle, Michael Ball and Steven Galton, Conservative Candidate for Millbrook and leading No Southampton Biomass campaigner have also lined up to fight the proposal.


Steve's comments can be found HERE on the BBC News website.

Southern Water's £26M Upgrade to Millbrook Water Works in Western Docks

I have received correspondence from Southern Water today, with details of new investment that they are putting into the Millbrook Wastewater Treatment Works in the Western Docks.

A £25.8M upgrade will involve rebuilding part of the site and enhancing the treatment process. New facilities will be built that will allow the removal of nutrients, such as nitrogen, from treated wastewater before it is recycled into the Solent.

Southern Water explained that when the levels of nutrients are too high, algal blooms can grow in coastal waters. These may reduce the amount of oxygen in the water and smother fish and other creatures. Southern Water say that the removal of these nutrients will ensure the water leaving the site is of the best possible quality and continues to meet tightening Environment Agency standards.

The work on the site is due to start in late 2011 and will be carried out by Southern Water's supplier 4Delivery. The project is due to be completed in the summer of 2014.

Our local Conservative team have been campaigning hard for improvements to the treatment works and in particular highlighting the concerns of local residents about the smells that occasionally emanate from the site. Click HERE for more details on our campaign.

Helius Energy Delay Consultation to 'Autumn'

Helius have delayed their new consultation on their plans for a biomass power station until the 'Autumn'. The consultation was due to start in July. Further information can be found HERE.

Helius To Extend Consultation on Power Station

Helius Energy have announced that they intend to amend their Biomass scheme. They are now intending undertake further public consultation in the Summer.

I reported to residents in a recent newsletter that the city Council's Planning Panel would be meeting to discuss their scheme on Tuesday 24th May.

In light of Helius's statement the council has decided to defer the item from the Council’s Planning Panel. When a new date is determined I will update residents. It is my intention when the matter does finally come before the panel, for comment, to speak against the scheme.

Freemantle Councillors Formally Object to Biomass Plant

Below is the Freemantle Councillors' submission to Helius as a formal response to their consultation on their planned biomass plant in the Western Docks.

Dear Sir

We are writing as local councillors for the Freemantle Ward to put on record our formal objection to your plans for a Power Station proposed for the Western Docks.

Over recent weeks we have been inundated with correspondence from constituents objecting to the scheme and we have attended a number of packed local public meetings where residents were unanimously against the plans.

Location

The proposed site is directly opposite a residential area. Roads like Lakelands Drive and Foundry Lane are just 125m from the site. Due to the site’s close proximity to housing the proposed power plant will undoubtedly have a serious detrimental impact on the lives of local residents. Anecdotally we have been advised that your plans are already beginning to blight the area with residents struggling to sell their properties or finding that their properties are being significantly devalued.

Cllr Moulton is a governor of the local school, Freemantle Academy. Hence we know first hand from many parents in the area how they are worried about the impact of the power station on their community. The worry is that families will not want to bring up children in an area over shadowed by an enormous power station and will start to move away or not move into the area. This will have a profound knock on effect on the school.

A number of residents have asked whether other sites in the Docks have been examined; bearing in mind that the docks are an expansive area with the majority of the area sited much further away from housing. We are not aware that any alternative sites have been considered.

Size

The proposed scale of the plant is far too large and out of context with its surrounding structures. Indeed it will be the biggest building on the city skyline, dwarfing the terraced housing opposite. The chimney at 100m tall is three times the height of cranes in the docks. Its sheer size and mass is out of character with the area. It will dominate the view of those coming into the city by road or rail from the west, the residential areas across Southampton water bordering the New Forest and the 1.4m cruise ship passengers travelling up and down Southampton water. The new police building in Southern Road, that opened this year, was meant to be a landmark gateway building. However all people will see when approaching from the west will be the power station.

Some residents have suggested to us that if the power station was of a much smaller, perhaps more on the scale of the District Energy Scheme in the city centre then proposals for the site would be more acceptable. However, other concerns would need to be addressed. Observations have been made that perhaps the only reason you opted for such a large scale site of 100MW capacity was not because they planned to operate at this capacity, but felt that a more favourable result would entail if they bypassed the local planning process in order to submit to the IPC. Hence it is important that local views are not disenfranchised to effect an unfair advantage to the applicant.

Economic Impact

Neighbouring the development is the premier shopping development of West Quay with the new £150m luxury shopping development of Watermark Westquay due to open in 2013. On the waterfront is the proposed £450m development of Royal Pier by Morgan Sindell. The economic revival of Southampton will be placed in jeopardy, as developers will struggle to find tenants to occupy these premier sites with a huge eyesore dominating the surrounding skyline. Southampton is one of the most deprived urban areas in the South East and is fundamental that inward investment is secured to enable job creation in the area. There are thousands of new jobs now in jeopardy.

Design

The proposed design of the scheme is dreadful. It is functional and lacks any architectural merit. It is completely out of keeping with the Victorian terraced houses and docker cottages bordering the site or the nearby attractive 1934 Solent flour mill that greets workers and visitors entering Dock Gate 10 to the port along West Bay Road. It has been suggested that this might not be the final design. However, what guarantees are there that you will present a more appealing design and proceed to build this and not revert to the cheaper functional form already presented. Indeed can the design be changed if you get IPC approval with your current submission? What guarantees are there that you would not sell your planning approval to another company that might then proceed to develop something very different in appearance?

Pollution

A major concern of residents is the adverse impact on air quality. The area already has very low air quality with all the nearby industry and traffic. The power station will further reduce the air quality. The aim should be to improve air quality. The suggestion that it might be within particular standards, if true, does not change the fact that the air quality will be worse and this will have a heath impact on local residents. One only has to walk around the area to see the build up of soot on cars and window ledges. The city centre location is densely packed being home to thousands of people and with the local Freemantle primary school being close by. One can imagine people with asthma and other health problems will be adversely affected. To the North East of the area are the central parks of Southampton Common, a site of Special Scientific Interest with a fragile habitat with the largest population of the internationally rare great crested newt.

Noise

The power station will operate 24 hours a day and local residents will be subject to continuous noise pollution. It is not necessarily the operating noise of the facility itself but the conveyors carrying the fuel source onto the site and loading into the burners. To site it further away from houses would help alleviate its impact. This is then an argument for looking for an alternative site and/or downscaling the power station so that it doesn’t impact on the community. There is already considerable noise pollution and over many years we have had complaints from neighbours who are affected by it.

Traffic

If a power station is to be built in the docks, then all the materials should be shipped through the docks and not brought by road. When one considers that a single lorry movement equates to 30 tonnes of load then when the proposal is for 800,000 tonne capacity, then the road impact could be enormous if limits were not put in place. There are no such guarantees in the current submissions we have seen. The Millbrook roundabout and Millbrook Road West are already very congested. The link road into the city is recognised as one of the key roads in the country yet it remains the responsibility of the Council to maintain something that it can ill-afford. The new City Depot being built off Dock Gate 4 will add further traffic pressure to the area. This route is the main entry point into the city for tens of thousands of daily shoppers to West Quay and IKEA, commuters and visiting football fans. Your plans include no measures to mitigate the impact of traffic on the community. There are no suggestions to have a separate docks road off the M271. Measures like this would help should you bring materials by lorry.

Consultation

The feeling in the community is that your consultation has been flawed. Your staff have been unable to provide good quality answers to residents’ questions at drop in sessions. Very people recall receiving leaflets from you and the design of the leaflets did not attract the eye. Indeed we understand that many fliers were distributed via the free weekly Southampton Advertiser and hence any literature will have been mistaken for the usual marketing leaflets and binned. It was only when pictures of the proposed design came to light in the online consultation document that residents began to become aware of the proposal and appreciate the enormous impact it would have on the community. Letters from you have been restricted to residents associations, councillors, MPs and the like and limited effort has been made to directly engage the residents who live near by.

You have suggested in a recent press release that following the public response to your scheme that you would look again at the size of the scheme. However no detail has been forthcoming. If you intend to make material changes then you should restart the consultation. If the changes are not material then clearly they won’t address the concerns that residents have. From discussions with Southampton City Council planners they have grave concerns about the lack of detail in your submission. Despite numerous requests for more detailed specifications to expand on "not significant" they have yet to receive adequate responses. This lack of open and honest engagement is deeply concerning.

Fuel Source

We have considerable doubts that wood bio mass on this scale is sustainable. The amount of fuel proposed is enormous in comparison to the UK output of wood. Indeed from research we understand that there is no spare capacity to meet the plant’s proposed requirements. Inevitably the vast quantity of wood will be sourced from abroad. Hence the so called green credentials of this technology are dubious to say the least. The impact on carbon emissions of transporting it from around the world will be considerable. A more locally sustainable, smaller, power station using waste wood and local coppicing would surely be more environmentally friendly. What guarantees can you provide that all your wood will come from an accredited source, indefinitely? What steps have you taken to secure viable quantities of fuel?

Will food be the only fuel source or might other material be burned? What guarantees can you make in this regard? What will be the impact of burning non-virgin wood which has been treated with chemicals (paint and varnish)? Has an assessment been made of burning these complex chemical compounds?

Heat and CO2

No provision has been made to recycle the heat produced from the burning of the fuel. Nor has thought been given to the release of the CO2. Hence these by-products of the combustion are being wasted. Combined heat and power plants are now common place in large glass house nurseries around the UK such as Thanet in Kent and Isle of Wight, where the green credentials of burning fuel are well known and documented with heat used to warm the glasshouses and CO2 provided to the plants.

Whilst this is by no means an exhaustive list of arguments to oppose this application, we do consider that the concerns we have raised are real and warrant that this application be rejected. The first area that must be considered is the adequacy of consultation. We consider that this first stage has not been satisfied and you should be required to return the drawing board.

Community Benefit

Once the construction phase has ceased, which no doubt be undertaken by specialist workers from outside the city there will only be 40 jobs created by operating the plant. Hence there will be limited economic benefit to the city outside of the income earned by ABP for leasing the site and cheap power source provided. For such a major multi-million pound development, you have not offered any planning monies to benefit the local community, facilities or infrastructure improvements to the key arterial M271/Millbrook Road route into the city. This is incredibly surprising and demonstrates a complete disregard for your corporate social responsibility.

Yours faithfully

Jeremy Moulton
Brian Parnell
Michael Ball
Councillors for Freemantle Ward