Fishing haven under threat by 'monstrous' incinerator plan

A celebrated valley set among some of the South of England most scenic countryside is being threatened by plans to build an incinerator so vast it could house two cathedrals within it, protestors have claimed.

The Test Valley in Hampshire is home to some of the world's best fishing spots lying amid the rolling hills where house prices in quintessentially English villages exceed £800,000.

But campaigners claim the area will be “destroyed” by plans for a “monstrous” waste incinerator. Thousands of protesters have criticised plans drawn up by Wheelabrator, an American technology giant, to construct the industrial plant in the heart of the valley.

It is feared the incinerator - which will be 607ft (185m) long, 230ft (70m) wide and 151ft (46m) high - will need vast quantities of water, resulting in pollution in the River Test where it may even draw water as part of its 135,000 cubic metres needed each year.

Campaigners say once constructed, nearby Winchester Cathedral could fit inside it twice.

Signs opposing the plant have been erected in the villages of Longparish and Barton Stace where residents are most likely to be affected.

The campaign is supported by a former adviser to David Cameron when he was Prime Minister and ex-F1 drivers Jody Scheckter and Jonathan Palmer, who live locally.

Jonathan Palmer, a former Formula One driver now businessman who lives locally, described the plans as “absolutely outrageous”.

“I can't believe anyone would have the audacity to build something which would look whopping in an industrial area in the middle of the beautiful countryside,” Mr Palmer, 63, said.

"This company can see an opportunity and clearly doesn’t care about putting an ugly, monstrous building in the countryside.

"The whole thing is totally driven by greed. Out on my land as I look across the Valley I will be presented with this ghastly thing.

"It should be in the middle of an industrial site in a big city like Birmingham."

The Test Valley is known as a rural have and international destination for fly fishermen who pay hundreds of pounds a day for the chance to net salmon and trout from the chalk stream that runs through it.

The spot is popular with television personalities, including Jeremy Paxman and Chris Tarrant, footballer Vinnie Jones and actor Nicolas Cage.

Lord Crickhowell, former chairman of the National Rivers Authority, once said the river should be treated as if “a great work of art or music'.

Andy Jolliffe, 60, who is leading the protest group ‘Bin the Incinerator’, said: "Here you have this sense of real tranquillity and isolation, but they are going to build an absolutely monstrous site in the countryside which will look so out of place.

"Everybody is shocked by the scale of this thing. I'm sure people won't want to fish there if there's a towering incinerator above them."

Richard Wills, 57, who has spent the last 15 years restoring parts of the river, and owns Middleton Estate less than a mile from the earmarked site, claimed taking water from the river would destroy its delicate ecological balance.

“Chalk streams are rarer than rainforests and 80 per cent of the world's chalk streams are in southern England. They're going to cause unimaginable damage to a precious eco-system,” he said.

"They will be sucking up the water and putting the smoke that comes out across the Valley.”

Caroline Nokes, Conservative MP for the area before Parliament dissolved, criticised the plans as “simply in the wrong place”.

The scheme is classed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project and will require approval from the government's Planning Inspectorate rather than the local council.

Wheelabrator claim the incinerator will save up to 500,000 tonnes of waste from being dumped in landfill sites or sent abroad as well as generating enough energy for more than 110,000 homes.

"In addition, Wheelabrator Harewood would enable the recycling of valuable materials,” the company said in a statement. “There would also be hundreds of full-time jobs created during its construction and approximately 50 new full-time jobs when it becomes operational."