THE latest campaigning approaches to stop the wasteful and so last century incinerator are really good at keeping the issue in the public eye but it is doubtful they are the killer blows to scrap the project.

I first got to grips with the incineration issue when Linda, my late wife, was a county councillor on Worcestershire County Council where she proposed the grounds for refusal for their first incinerator site when it was turned down at Planning Committee (which actually helped as it was eventually turned down by the Planning Inspector).

I haven’t seen the detail of the complaint to the Completion and Markets Authority it is an interesting intervention and could pile the pressure on.

Whilst it could stop the project dead it might turn out to be a damp squib with even a guilty verdict resulting in very modest action, given the regulators past record of limited intervention except in the most blatant breaches of competition law.

Equally, Martin and Gail baring all (well not quite enough to suffer legal consequences ) is great publicity but in terms of the influencing the wider public they don’t quite cut it as modern day Godiva’s – for that we need we need someone like the Lord Lieutenant or Lady Bathhurst to turn up the heat on the County establishment, but after May’s pyric victory that isn’t going to happen, as the Blues and Royals will regroup to defend the regime in Downing Street from democracy and advance of Corbynism.

The only way of shutting this incinerator project down for good is going to be quiet long term holding UBB and the county council’s feet to the fire of UBB on the planning conditions and on air quality.

It has happened before – about 25 years ago there was someone who very persistently held Gloucester Hospital et al to account over the clinical waste incinerator at the hospital.

Eventually, with very little help from the authorities, he was proved right and it was shut down.

And with the Air Quality Monitoring that Stroud District is going to do we are light years forward from that debacle.

Perhaps a possible forum for public accountability for the project is the already existing “Community Liaison Group” but looking over some of the notes it does have the look and feel of froth over substance.

It probably needs beefing up a bit with a wider membership to reflect the communities other than Standish, Hardwicke and Haresfield who will be affected by the pollution plume and perhaps have some real critics of the project round the table as well as all party representation from Stroud district.

Cllr Chas Townley

District Councillor for Stroud Uplands (Labour and Cooperative), Stroud