Angry residents have protested against plans to build a new biomass power station in central Southampton.
Local people are angry at “completely unfair” plans that could see a 100m chimney tower over the city.
Campaigners have set up the No Southampton Biomass group in an attempt to stop construction of the fuel factory. Protests over the weekend have been followed by smaller scale demonstrations outside public exhibitions. If the plans are approved the factory will be built on land in the western docks, near the Freemantle area of the city.
The company behind the scheme are Helius Energy,who admitted there are “understandable concerns” from local residents but that they will press ahead with the scheme. They have held public exhibitions this week in an effort to calm fears that the plant will cause excess pollution. Helius insist that the plant will meet environmental standards.
But Eloisa Gil Arranz, one of the leaders of the campaign against the plant, said: “To take away a landscape that we've got and put something else in it's place to me seems completely unfair and I don't know how they can think that that's anything that we're going to look upon positively.”
“I really don't think they understand what people of Southampton actually want. We don't want this, we don't want it on our doorstep, we don't want it on the gateway to our city and we'll never be proud of it.”
Biomass plants burn wood to produce energy. The station planned for Southampton will produce enough energy for 200,000 homes. Biomass plants are seen as an environmentally friendly option as the wood used is usually sourced from sustainable forests and emissions produced are less than that for burning oil.
Paul Brighton, Helius' Planning Director, said: “There are understandable concerns about traffic movement and impact of the plant on air quality, visual impact, noise issues and so on, but we have addressed all of those through very detailed environmental studies as part of the ongoing work.”
Helius say that production of the power station will create hundreds of jobs during construction and then around 40 permanent jobs when the plant is up and running.
In a statement to WINOL Southampton City Council said they would not support the plans in their current format. Councillor Royston Smith, Leader of Southampton City Council, said: “I have reviewed these proposals in detail and I share the concerns of residents. We will oppose the plans if they are submitted. The public has reacted passionately about this issue and I completely understand why. Green energy creation and jobs for local people could be good if done in the right way, however in this instance we agree with residents that the current proposals would not be suitable for this area, particularly for those residents living close by to the development site.”
In response, Helius have now said that they will attempt to rework plans to make the plant smaller, minimising the visual impact on the area.
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