Councils urged to reverse plans for incinerator

Local authorities in the southeast have been urged to reverse their decision to approve plans for a centralised incinerator to dispose of the region's waste.

Wexford County Council decided this week to seek more information about the controversial proposal before determining whether to approve or reject it.

Now campaigners against the proposal want the other five local authorities in the region, who have already approved the plan, to reverse their stance to give time for the health and safety implications to be addressed.

The incinerator proposal is a key part of a 20-year waste management strategy drawn up by consultants for the South-East Regional Authority (SERA), which is seeking new ways to dispose of the 350,000 tonnes of waste in the region each year.

The strategy, recommended by consultants Fehily, Timoney and Co, covers a range of measures for dealing with waste. But a central element of the approach recommended is the establishment of a single incinerator within an area which takes in part of south Kilkenny, east Waterford and west Wexford. A New Ross-based residents' body, the Research and Information Group, claims members of the five local authorities which approved the consultants' strategy were not fully apprised of its contents. A member of the group, Dr Michael Prendergast, said yesterday Wexford County Council was the first authority in the region to decide to look at the report in depth.

That view was supported by a member of Waterford County Council, which has approved the plan. Cllr Garry O'Halloran claimed most councillors in the region "haven't the foggiest notion" of what is in the consultants' report.

However, the director of SERA, Mr Tom Byrne, said all six local authorities were involved from the outset in the process leading to the proposed waste management strategy. The consultants had presented their report to each of the six local authorities late last year. The Research and Information Group said yesterday that none of the councillors it had spoken to could recall such a presentation, but Mr Byrne said he had personally attended five of them.