The Capel Incinerator Proposal

Sir Paul Beresford, MP for Mole Valley; Helyn Clack, County Councillor for Dorking Rural; and Councillor Jean Pearson, Chairman of Mole Valley District Council, were present at a well-attended meeting in Capel Village Hall on Thursday 15 November. Paul Garber and Dino Adriano, of the Capel Action Group, outlined the up to date position on the incinerator proposal and future steps. The key points conveyed were:

• That the Inspectors had yet to report on the Examination in Public into the Surrey Waste Plan, which ran from February – September 2007. The report is expected in early December and Surrey County Council have undertaken to publish it shortly thereafter. The decision of the Inspectors is binding on Surrey County Council. One possible outcome is that the Clockhouse site will be removed from the Plan, but such an outcome remains speculative at this stage.
  
• Surrey Waste Management has lodged its planning application with Surrey County Council, who have yet to formally register the application and circulate it for comment. Surrey Waste Management's stated expectation is that the application will be determined in Spring 2008.

The strong message given out at the meeting was that the application should be considered live NOW.

Key aspects of the planning application were discussed at the meeting and everyone is urged to start writing individual letters from now on. The style of the letters should be personal and the letters should be quite short and to the point. It might be better to send an additional letter if you wish to cover more than one aspect. All members of a household are encouraged to write individually. Factsheets were provided at the meeting. (Copies of the factsheets are available on the CAG website at www.capelaction.org.uk ) These contain bullet points for inclusion in letters, for use as considered appropriate by the writer, together with details of where the letters should be sent and who should be copied in. The more that other relevant people (such as County Committee members) are copied in, the better. Letters can be sent by email or through the post.

Strong support was expressed at the meeting for the campaign against the incinerator to be broadened beyond the confines of Capel itself and to step up engagement with the media. One suggestion was that the campaign should be re-branded the Mole Valley Incinerator. Strong support was expressed for greater visible evidence of the campaign e.g. through the use of window posters and car stickers. The ideas, suggestions and information requests made at the meeting information will be discussed and progressed by a Resources Group, which has now been set up. The members (with contact details) are:

Dino Adriano dino_adriano@tiscali.co.uk 01306 711366

Jackie Coke researchcdr@onetel.com 01306 711098

Paul Garber Paul.Garber@taylorwimpey.com 01306 711015

Mandy Schryver mandyschryver@yahoo.co.uk 01306 711292

The preferred means of contact with members of the Resources Group is by email so please use that medium, if you have it. If not please feel free to ‘phone.

The role of the Resources Group will be to consider ideas for the next stages of the campaign and to support individuals/groups in the village, who may wish to take initiatives, by responding to requests for information and providing materials.

One matter that was raised at the meeting concerned the height of the building and chimney stack. The overall height is confirmed as 70m or 230ft, which is 25% higher than Nelson's Column.

We are now very definitely in “real time” in our fight against this preposterous proposal for an incinerator. We must work ever more effectively together to defeat it.

Dino Adriano

Capel Action Group