Brunner Mond Incinerator at Lostock

[nicksey]

This longstanding situation rages on. Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, there are some who take the NIMBY (Not in my back yard) approach saying that the the idea of these giant incinerators is great and good but just not in my town. Then there are those from outside of Northwich who have the opinion that Northwich residents should stop moaning and just put up with it.

There are in fact three main issues of concern here as far as I can see.

1. HEALTH - The health of us, the residents of Northwich, particularly those living nearest to the proposed site. Everyone has an opinion but who is right, who is wrong. Is this going to be a monster within our town, belching out toxic fumes that over a period of time will poison us, our children, our animals, our gardens etc or do the safety features and the modern technology that is presumably being designed and built in to the incinerator mean that what comes out of the chimney is pretty much harmless and so high up in the air that it just gets blown away and diluted to nothing before it ever gets to ground level. I don't know the answer to that but I am pretty sure I would rather it wasn't there to worry about in the first place.

2. VISIBILITY - By this I mean the look of the thing, will it overpower our skyline casting dark shadows over the homes nearest. Well I suppose that the Brunner Mond facility could never be thought of as picturesque or a thing of beauty so personally I can't see it being any worse to look at than what is there already.

3. TRAFFIC CONGESTION - This is probably my main issue at this stage. Where is the entrance to the site going to be? Presumably on Griffiths Road where there is already an entrance to the site. Now as I understand it huge amounts of waste will be brought in by road, presumably thousands of HGV's making their way to the site. This is where there is a potential huge issue. If they will indeed access the site from Griffiths Road, then ALL of the traffic will have to travel from the A556 roundabout near Morrison's and take King Street to reach Griffiths Rd. They cannot come the other way because of the low bridge near to Jack richards site. So unless there is a new entrance, or a new access road, King Street will become the only way in. King street has homes on both sides with sides streets leading to housing off to both sides, it will become more noisy and dangerous than it already is. There are already large numbers of heavy goods vehicles using this route, with the incinerator using it as well then I don't think the roads or houses on it would be able to withstand the noise, vibration and congestion. For everyone in Rudheath the route going away from Northwich will become a nightmare, imagine trying to exit Middlewich Road at the Broken Cross bridge with all of this to deal with. Traffic will be forced back in to Northwich centre as Rudheath residents try to find a better way to drive out of Northwich. I think at this stage this is my main concern out of the 3 points, That side of Northwich could just become too congested to travel through, unless another access road was created.

Any thoughts about this?

[nicksey]

Having now had the opportunity to study the planning proposal ducuments on display at Northwich Library I can now comment further on the traffic issue regarding Brunner Mond's proposed plant.

I am horrified to read that the traffic report states that there is no intention to change or to improve any of the existing road network. The report mentions how Griffiths Road connects up to the local road network at each end and even mentions the low rail bridge near to Jack Richards, it does not, however make clear that HGV's cannot pass under this bridge and that they will therefore have only one way in and out of the site and that is via King Street to the A556 roundabout near to Morrison's.

To add insult to injury the report states that no improvements to the road access is required because site traffic will not have to pass through any local residential areas! What do they think the stretch of King street between the Middlewich Rd/Broken Cross junction and the A556 is then. There are houses down pretty much both sides and off the side streets adjoining it. Traffic congestion will become a major issue to anyone using this stretch of road and the homes alongside it will be subject to noise and vibration.

Let's not let this happen and object in the strongest way possible and do it now before its too late!