Celebrities join the anti-incinerator fight (From Stroud News and Journal)

Celebrities join the anti-incinerator fight

7:00am Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News By Chris Warne, SNJ reporter for Stonehouse and Chalford. Twitter @ChrisWarneSNJ

A HOST of celebrities have signed a pledge opposing the £500 million Javelin Park incinerator and supporting sustainable alternatives.

Author Jilly Cooper, Ecotricity founder Dale Vince and the Fabulous Baker Brothers Tom Herbert and Henry Herbert have all leant their names to the opposition campaign being run by both GlosVAIN and GlosAIN.

Artist PJ Crook MBE, and British fashion designers Lucinda 'Lulu' Jane Guinness OBE and Savannah Miller, sister of actress Sienna, have also signed the pledge.

The fashion-writer, novelist and contributing editor to Vogue, Victoria 'Plum' Sykes, who lives in Painswick, is also opposed to the facility and was responsible for setting-up the online Government petition against it.

So far her petition has attracted more than 850 signatures.

Novelist Jilly Cooper said she 'wholeheartedly supported' GlosVAIN and its efforts to promote more environmentally friendly waste disposal options.
 

"This plan to build a vast incinerator on the edge of the Cotswolds AONB, which will be visible for miles around, represents an assault on our rural heritage and the ravishingly beautiful Cotswold countryside when we should be doing everything we can to protect it from unnecessary development," she said.

Savannah Miller said: "I am really against the incinerator at Javelin Park because it is of monstrous proportions that far exceed the need for our area.

"I am really frustrated that once again, common sense is being over ridden by corporate greed. I hope the council will seriously consider a more sustainable option."

A GCC spokesman said: "Modern energy from waste facilities are clean and safe with the track record to prove it, and we're working hard to deliver a fair planning process that gives everyone the chance to have their say.

"The Department of Communities and Local Government made it clear that they will not call in an application at this stage and, as a result, we will continue to work on the application so it is ready for determination by the planning committee."

 

The Stroud News & Journal is supporting the campaign urging the communities secretary Eric Pickles to step-in and decide the Javelin Park planning application.

We are backing GlosVAIN's campaign for a 'call-in' because we believe it is the fairest and most democratic way of determining whether or not the facility should be built.

The SNJ encourages readers to write to Mr Pickles to request a call-in and to sign the online petition against the facility because the more signatures it attracts, the more likely Mr Pickles is to intervene.
 

Sign the petition via at epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43257