Opponents of the proposed £5m Biomass plant have reacted with anger to news that Shropshire Council’s cabinet has agreed to set aside land at the town’s Business Park for the development.
Shropshire Council’s cabinet provisionally accepted a proposal to build the Biomass plant on the site during a confidential discussion at a meeting last week. Now, the minority LibDem Group has ‘called in’ the decision of Cabinet. The matter will now go to the economy and environment scrutiny panel early in September, said Clun councillor Nigel Hartin.
“I am pleased that this issue is now going to be further scrutinised since I have concerns that the decision Cabinet reached may not be fully in accordance with the council’s sustainable community strategy,” he said.
A new site must be found for the community farm but allotments on the site are expected to be retained. Town mayor Keith Pinches said the decision was ‘unbelievable’ and a ‘big disappointment’.
Chris Day, consultant to Biomass Power, said the company was pleased with Shropshire Council’s decision.
Town councillor Neil Hird, a driving force behind the community farm project said in a letter to the Journal: “It is very disappointing to hear that Shropshire Council’s Cabinet appear to favour the Biomas bid for Crowgate land. To date no full council of elected members has approved this very controversial Biomas planning application against which there is overwhelming public opinion.”
Town councillor Norman St John Penney said also in a letter to the Journal: “ It has come as no great surprise that the cabinet of Shropshire Council is minded to sell land in Bishop’s Castle Business Park for a biomass plant, despite over 400 letters of objection to the planning application.
“We feared that we would have little recognition in this part of the county and so it has turned out to be. There is no councillor in the cabinet living in Bishop’s Castle – the nearest is 15 miles away.”
*For more on this issue, ee the Letters page in this week’s South Shropshire Journal.