Company asked to back campaign against Gloucester incinerator

A director who works at a potential site for a waste incinerator is reeling after being urged to sign a petition against such a proposal.

Gloucester Labour MP Parmjit Dhanda has written to constituents living close to Allstone's Myers Road site urging them to support his campaign against a possible incinerator scheme and included company director Jeanette Street, at her home address in Kingsholm.

She said: "I was astonished to receive this letter. I would have thought I would be one of the last people he would have asked to sign his petition.

"The whole thing is a storm in a teacup anyway. It has only been put forward as a site to be included in the waste plan, we have no immediate plans to do anything," she said.

She added that an incinerator was just one of a number of options and accused Mr Dhanda of wasting money in his campaign.

But Mr Dhanda said the petition was against any plans for an incinerator, not the company.

Aggregate firm Allstone Ltd has put forward its site, in the Barnwood Railway Triangle, as a possible waste disposal location to be included in Gloucestershire County Council's waste strategy.

Allstone MD Simon Ford added: "There are a number of possibilities for this site and an incinerator is just one of them. We might also consider building a small business park that could provide jobs for up to 300 people.

"The most publicised concerns from environmentalists about the incineration of municipal solid wastes involve the fear that it produces significant amounts of dioxin emissions.

"Due to advances in emission control designs and stringent new governmental regulations, incinerators emit virtually no dioxins.

"It has been estimated that chimneys and tiled stoves in private households alone discharge approximately 20 times more dioxins into the environment than modern incineration plants."

A spokesman for Mr Dhanda said: "Parmjit's well supported petition is not against Allstones, it was against the Gloucestershire County Council's plan to build an incinerator in Gloucester.

"The press release, however, is a concern, as it confirms what Gloucester residents are fearing that the site could well be used by the county council for a 10-storey incinerator."