Bishop's Castle biomass fight will continue

Campaigners contesting plans for a £5 million biomass plant in a south Shropshire town have insisted they will continue their fight in the new year. Plans have been approved despite objections and a public inquiry.

Members of the Bishop's Castle Group plan to meet early in the new year to decide their next move in the bid to stop a biomass burner being built at Bishop's Castle Business Park.

Group members have also been liaising with Shropshire Council and Ludlow MP Philip Dunne over planning conditions attached to the plans, which campaigners fear could be altered by applicants Bishop's Castle Biomass Power.

Karen Bavastock, group chairwoman, said: "We are down but not out, and we will certainly be carrying on the fight in the new year.

"We are in the process of regrouping and will decide at a meeting very early in the new year what our next course of action will be. We certainly will not be giving up.

"Philip Dunne has been in contact with Shropshire Council on our behalf with regard to the planning conditions with the application. The planning inspector had laid down some conditions but we are concerned BCBP may try to vary them, which to us would be totally unacceptable."

Campaigners have been fighting the plans for more than three-and-a-half years, claiming the plant could pose health risks and that the land could be more suitably used for other community projects.

More than 300 people turned out at a Shropshire Council development services scrutiny committee meeting in September, held at Bishop's Castle Community College, to voice their opposition to the biomass proposal.