Fears of roads coping with proposed plant (From This is The West Country)

Fears of roads coping with proposed plant

8:00am Saturday 27th October 2012 in Devon

FEARS about certain Tiverton roads being unable to cope with increased traffic if a proposed waste to energy plant is built have subsided after the site of concern seems to be out of the running.

Campaigners are del-ighted that their views about potential problems if the plant was built near Blundell’s School and Halberton were taken on board at a meeting at county hall on Wednesday.

Councillors were told that the smaller roads nearby would be put under too much pressure if the plant was built there and that land to the north would be more suitable not least because of its proximity to the A361.

Cllr Des Hannon, who represents Tiverton on Devon County Council, said: “If such a thing is to be built, it now sounds more likely that it will be built in the northern area of the development, as far as possible from existing houses and as close as possible to the North Devon link road.

“I get the strong positive impression that the southern area is becoming a non-runner, so I think we are in the process of gaining a victory.

“People close to the development shouldn’t expect to see a waste to energy plant close to their homes and my absolute priority is that current residents don’t have their lives blighted by all the traffic from this development.”

Jeremy Slater of Tiver-ton Civic Society said: “The committee listened and seemed to take on board our ideas.

“We are open-minded about the plant itself but we want to do everything to avoid traffic problems.

“Flooding too has always been a problem, despite flood relief work, so great areas of concrete are bound to make this worse.

“It is early stages but things are looking quite promising.”