Multi-million pound plans to create an industrial scale plastics recycling centre in Perthshire have been hit with a claim its possible effects on public health were not properly disclosed.
The Binn Group-led ‘Project Beacon’, based on technology developed by Swindon-based company Recycling Technologies and announced with great fanfare last month by the likes of Zero Waste Scotland, has drawn criticism from Abernethy Community Council (ACC).
It claims a human health risk assessment associated with the proposed development at Binn Farm near Glenfarg was not published in its entirety until it was too late for the “missing” information to be properly considered by curious members of the public.
Perth and Kinross Council received a planning application for the “world first” facility as well as numerous other supporting documents on April 26 but only published the “missing” part of the assessment on June 20 after a local resident started asking questions.
The report, written by Fichtner Consulting Engineers, acknowledges the new recycling centre could release a number of “chemicals of potential concerns” into the atmosphere such as cadmium, benzene, mercury, arsenic and nickel but concludes these emissions “are considered to have a negligible impact on human health”.
ACC has now filed an objection to the proposal pointing out the plant will be using technology which was only trialled by Recycling Technologies last year and claiming the project is only being “accelerated” now in order to secure European funding before Britain leaves the EU next year.
Following a meeting with representatives of Recycling Technologies the group’s chair wrote to PKC stating: “Recycling Technologies [has] confirmed that the beta unit trialled in Swindon is only 10 per cent of the size of the commercial units being proposed [at Binn Farm].
“The significant increase in the scale of the unit (1000 per cent) raises concerns about the operators ability to replicate the positive results (we are told but not shown) achieved by the beta unit.
“It was pointed out that the trial period has been relatively short. The operator confirmed that the process is being accelerated because European funding which underpins the project will be withdrawn in March 2019.”
The group’s chair goes on to state in the objection: “PKC omitted part of the human health report from their planning website. This was only added on June 20 when this was queried by a resident. PKC were asked to extend the public consultation period to give residents an opportunity to review the material added, but this request was rejected.”
A council spokesperson insisted the majority of the air quality report had been available on its online planning portal from May 10 and for public comment during the statutory consultation period for the application, which closed on June 4.
They said no representations had been received.
They added: “As a result of contact from a local resident, the applicant was asked to provide a copy of the report including [a] technical appendix, which was subsequently uploaded to the planning portal on June 20. We chose not to extend the public consultation period given that there had been no comments previously from members of the public.
“Separate to this matter, we agreed to allow ACC until June 22 to comment on the application, to accommodate their public meeting held on June 20.
“The relevant statutory consultees will be consulted in full to establish their view regarding this technical appendix. It will also be fully considered as part of the council’s assessment of the application.”
Meanwhile renewed plans for four turbines to also be built at Binn Farm has attracted even more criticism from locals.
• Pick up a copy of Friday's PA for more on the wind farm controversy
