Newport veg oil power scheme set for go-ahead (From South Wales Argus)

Newport veg oil power scheme set for go-ahead

11:35am Saturday 5th September 2009

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CONTROVERSIAL plans for a new power plant using vegetable oil in Newport are set to get the go-ahead, despite hundreds of objections from residents, environmental groups and local schoolchildren.

Proposals from Vogen Energy for a plant which will generate electricity by burning plant oils will be considered by the council's planning committee on September 9.

But council documents reveal the authority has received more than 300 "protest" postcards, 223 e-mails and 23 letters in opposition to the development, including seven written by pupils at Marshfield Primary School near Newport.

Vogen Energy plans to build a 25 megawatt power plant to the south of Alexandra Dock able to power around 44,000 homes.

If the planning application is approved by councillors, Vogen will be given a list of 20 conditions the energy company must agree to before it can begin building.

But those opposing the scheme have raised concerns that burning the vegetable oils could have a negative impact on the air quality and health of nearby communities and many are angered a public meeting on August 25 was turned into a Vogen "information day".

Zenith Milner from Food Not Fuel said: "Pill residents shoul not be made guinea pigs in this way to suffer the consequences of a "quick fix"

technology which has already been found to be critically flawed."

A public meeting has been organised for 7pm on Monday at Pill Millennium Centre and a petition of more than 700 signatures will be presented to the council on Tuesday.

Jutta Deibel-Jung, of Tunnel Terrace, is one of several residents to object to the proposal and has written letters to all of Newport's councillors.

She said the carbon footprint caused by processing the oil and shipping it half way around the world is tremendous.

She said: "Should we really plant food in order to burn it when we could use other sources such as solar, wind and tidal.?"

Ms Deibel Jung added: "I'm sure the residents of Pill would not welcome the tankers coming into Newport and if it were to be built, the heavy congestion and pollution which would also come with it."

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