Misleading and inaccurate statements over waste facility

OUR proposals for a new waste treatment facility to deal with North Yorkshire residents’ rubbish have generated good debate through your letters pages.

We welcome all opinions and hope these have helped your readers to understand both sides of the debate about Allerton Waste Recovery Park.

Ordinarily, we are happy for people to express their views without the need for us to respond.

However, the recent letter from Laurie Boyle (Yorkshire Post, March 24) contained so many misleading and inaccurate statements that we felt it does require correction.

Sweeping comments such as the proposed facility being bigger than Wembley Stadium or taller than York Minster are wholly untrue and we would urge Mr Boyle to clearly check his figures before making such comments.

The facility will sit within an existing quarry and landfill setting and in reality is almost half the size of Wembley, while Lantern Tower on York Minster is taller and rightly more imposing than the highest part of our building.

Mr Boyle states the facility “will probably pollute 1,250sq miles” – on what basis can he calculate or prove his very inaccurate assumption?

The facility will be properly controlled and a full air quality assessment has been undertaken which undisputedly proves Mr Boyle to be wrong.

This assessment is publicly available as part of our planning application. In addition, the environmental impact assessment shows no impact on the Dales or the North Yorkshire moors and the associated businesses in the area. Mr Boyle also confuses the financial basis of the proposals. Waste management is nothing new – common sense dictates that waste is already being created, dealt with and paid for by North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council. The new facility will actually reduce this existing waste management bill, ensuring the authorities have additional budget for other vital services.

Mr Boyle is often at pains to stress AmeyCespa is a Spanish company.

It is not – we are registered here in the UK, our turnover and taxes are here in the UK, our employees and job creation are here in UK (in fact the new facility will create 400 local, Yorkshire jobs during construction and 70 when operational).

If any local residents do have questions about our proposals or the new facility, we are always happy to openly answer these. Further information is also available on our website.

It’s a shame that a minority choose to respond to our proposals by spreading what can only be described as untrue, inaccurate and deliberately misleading comments.