Dear Councillors
In a departure from our regular Briefing Notes we need to bring to your attention, as our elected Councillors, what we consider to be a fragrant and outrageous disregard for the public and public interest regarding the proposed planning application at Coedbach.
The background is as follows:
At the public meetings held on the proposed power station at Coedbach during the summer 2008, serious concerns were raised about the potential risk to human health of this application; as a result Carmarthenshire County Council agreed to conduct a Human Health Impact Assessment (HIA) on this application.
On 1 October, the Head of Planning, Eifion Bowen, met with Meryl Gravell - Leader of the Council, local residents, and Coedbach Action Team (CAT), where we presented our Human Health concerns to Head of Planning. These were passed onto the developer by Eifion Bowen in a letter dated 1 October which outlined requirements for the HIA (copy attached). During this meeting it was agreed by E Bowen that we would be consulted with throughout the HIA process.
On 19 November during a telephone conference hosted by Dr Michael Thomas – Public Health Director for Carmarthenshire Local Health Board, the scoping document was discussed. The CAT requested a copy of this document prepared by the developer for the HIA (dated 29 October 2008). We received the scoping document on 19 November.
On 29 November – before we had time to consider input to this scoping document, we received a letter from E Bowen saying that he has now received a completed HIA from the developer – dated 21 November.
These are four elements to this situation that we consider to be outrageous and unprofessional.
Yours sincerely
Pauline Bowers
Secretary
For and on behalf of Coedbach Action Team
Parliamentary Question on Biomass
Below is an email from Nia Griffith to Coedbach Action Team
“As you may have heard, following the recent Government reshuffle, we now have a Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) headed by Ed Miliband. This is very welcome as some of us have been arguing for some time that it makes sense to have these together rather than across two departments.
On Thursday Ed Miliband made a three-pronged statement (now going for 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 in Climate Bill, feed-in tariffs for micro-generation and measures to stop over-pricing for those on pre-payment meters and electricity companies over-charging in rural areas where there is no mains gas).
I used the opportunity of being called by the speaker to ask the question below on biomass and start the minister and fellow MPs thinking about the issue. I have also written to Ed Miliband asking more specific questions as per our conversation and your notes”.
Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab):
In order to reduce our emissions by 80 per cent., we clearly need increased investment in a wide range of renewables. Will the Secretary of State carefully consider what the cumulative effect would be on forest and land use around the world of locating enough biomass material to feed all the biomass power stations in the planning system? I fear that our system of renewables obligation certificates might end up rewarding electricity producers for importing biomass materials huge distances from unsustainable sources. That would be completely different from small-scale projects using locally sourced biomass.
The question was definitely worth waiting for, because this is an important issue. My hon. Friend may know that an independent report on forestry published earlier this week argued precisely for a sustainable approach to forests, which must include the approach we take on biomass. I hear her comments and will think further about them.
October 2008
This Briefing Note has been produced for and on behalf of the Coedbach Action Team who are acting on behalf the 1000+ concerned individuals who want you to Say NO to Coedbach Power Station – Planning Application S/16781.