blackmorevale.net
New Blackmore Vale, 5 August 2022
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Politics
Triumph in waste incinerator battle It’s the summer recess but there’s nothing recessional about it as work continues to roll in. I’m writing this after an advice surgery but sadly plans for the roving one I liked to do in the summer had to be put on hold because of security concerns following the murder of my colleague Sir David Amess. A triumph at Wiltshire Council strategic planning on Wednesday over the proposed waste incinerator at Westbury. This thing was meant to take waste from across our area rendering it into irreducible slag for landfill and whatever goes up the stack. In return, the plant was to generate a few electrons to justify calling it an energy from waste plant, which sounds nicer than waste incinerator. Not green, not green at all, especially when dumped on a densely populated town.
Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire Dr Andrew Murrison So, on Wednesday I attended Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning committee again. The applicants wanted to get this signed, sealed and delivered before welcome new government environmental
targets come in that would undermine its case. Truth is we don’t need any more incinerators. The 1989 film ‘Field of Dreams’ has the line ‘if you build it, they will come.’ The same is true of incinerators. If you allow them to spring up, waste will be found to keep them going. Far better to do things like separate food waste for disposal by bio-digestion. That happens in some parts of the Blackmore Vale but not in Wiltshire, despite capacity. I must add that bio-digesters should be as far away from homes as possible because they smell, as Warminster residents will tell you. Just before recess I again called for a moratorium on incinerators in the Commons, which is the logical consequence of the new environmental targets we have seen in draft form and that are
likely to be formalised at the end of the year. Wiltshire Council having stoutly rejected the incinerator application on Wednesday, the matter now gets determined by a government inspector in November. So, the fight goes on. I’m actively supporting Rishi Sunak for leadership of my party and thus Prime Minister. The candidates have all been impressive but it’s Rishi who is connecting with the wider voting public. They will determine the outcome of the General Election in two years. That really is the test if my party is serious about winning rather than debating. In the hustings the former Chancellor’s grasp of the detail around the economy and the NHS has put him well ahead of the field, particularly as cost of living and healthcare are my constituents’ chief concerns.
of this has been seen in two recent events. Firstly, the competitive bid for £800,000 of funding to develop a community facility on Mampitts Green. A community land trust was formed in July 2020 to build a community hall. One of the town councillors, Peter Yeo, sits on its board. But in September 2021 the town council decided to push an alternative, rival proposal, fronted by Mayor and Dorset county councillor Piers Brown. A public consultation was held – much time and resource was spent developing an ‘official’ town council proposal. And what happened? This July, it was announced that the Mayor lost. The community land trust won. Secondly, we have the recent announcement that local children will be able to swim free of charge in public pools this summer. What you might not know is that Shaftesbury Lido was originally excluded from the scheme. The first the town council
knew about it was when Dorset announced it was starting in Gillingham. Fortunately, the town clerk was quick on the case, and the Lido is now included. At May’s annual town meeting, I spoke of the need for Shaftesbury’s leaders to stop referring to Dorset as some alien, arm’s length authority, when on the contrary the Mayor is a member of its ruling administration. We need fresh, positive engagement with Dorchester, to overturn the perception that, in the words of a Sherborne councillor, ‘there is something odd about Shaftesbury Town Council. They always seem to be at each other’s throats’. If county hall holds similar contempt, it’s no wonder ‘official’ proposals for community centres are discarded, and the town’s leisure facilities are an afterthought. Shaftesbury needs unity locally, and credibility in the county.
Town needs to pull together As national government is paralysed by the Conservative leadership contest, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on how our town and parish councils are getting on. Most of them toil away generating little attention or controversy – completing the essential work of the upkeep of our towns and villages. I say most of them… Recently, Dorset Council, which is responsible for overseeing the conduct of town and parish councils, published the number of complaints about them it received in the last two years. Here’s the summary for the Vale area: Blandford 1 Gillingham 0 Shillingstone 1 Sturminster 0 Shaftesbury 37 Shaftesbury Town Council accounted for 65 per cent of complaints across Dorset. Many of those complaints come from fellow councillors, and only one was upheld. A further 14 complaints were
Greg Williams, on behalf of Dorset Labour made to the police – none of which were upheld. Dorset Council said investigating all these complaints incurs ‘significant resources…clearly this does not constitute good value for local taxpayers’. The reputation of this town is being maligned by the very institution which should be promoting it. The consequence
