We want to ensure that as many councillors as possible hear about the proposals and our objections before the Planning Committee meets to make its decision. This could be as early as 10 June. If you live in Ealing, please contact your councillors by phone, email or letter to tell them why the power station is bad for Southall and bad for the planet. OR, give them the message in person by visiting your councillors at their Surgeries.
To find out who your local councillors are click here and type in your post code. You can then write to your local councillors using the link above. Contact details for Ealing Councillors are here
Surgery details for Ealing Councillors in May and June 2009 are here
Go to the Ealing Council website for surgery dates after June 2009. Click on your ward, then on a councillor's name
You could use this text when you email or write to your councillor. If you use some of your own words, that would be even better. Dear Councillor Re: Planning application ref number P/2009/0780 I am writing to object to the plans for Blue NG to build a power station at The Straight in Southall. I object on the following grounds: * Air quality: My family and I could suffer health problems because of the exhaust fumes. Burning vegetable oil emits nitrogen oxides and small particulates which can cause breathing problems or make them worse. It can also cause other illnesses. Air Quality in Ealing is already poor, and the Council has promised to improve it. The proposed power station would undermine those promises. We will also have to put up with pollution and noise from as many as 8 tankers delivering fuel everyday. * Biofuels make climate change worse: The power station will be burning biofuels on an industrial scale. This will not be recycled cooking oil, but pure vegetable oil. Scientists have shown that most biofuels make climate change worse. Biofuels produce more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. Biofuels also lead to the destruction of forests, the lungs of the world. This makes dangerous climate change more likely. Biofuels are a false green solution and I don’t want them being burned in my borough! * Biofuels cause food price rises and increase hunger: The power station in Ealing will burn 76,000 litres of vegetable oil a day, or 20,000 tonnes per year. If the oil is produced in this country it will need 6,700 hectares of farmland to grow the crops. This farmland could feed about 25,000 British people on a meat/veg diet. Losing this land means extra food imports, and more people in overseas countries could then go hungry. According to The World Bank, biofuels contribute up to 75% of world food price rises. We are feeling these price rises in Ealing too! * Biofuels are linked to human rights abuses: The company building the power station have not promised to source their fuel from the UK. In Asia, Africa and South America, people are suffering human rights abuses and land evictions and going hungry because of biofuels. According to the United Nations, up to 60 million people are at risk of becoming biofuel refugees. Ealing is an ethnically diverse borough and the families of many residents could be affected. * We the residents will not benefit: Apart from during construction we will get no benefits in terms of jobs, and we will not enjoy lower energy prices when the power station is operating. Please could you let me know your stance on this issue? Please could you let me know what you intend to do about this issue? I look forward to your reply. Yours faithfully Background notes to help: A company called Blue NG has applied for planning permission to build a new electricity power station at the Southall Gas Pressure Reduction Station in The Straight, Southall, UB1 1QX. (see location map).
The power station will run 24 hours a day and will have a 65 metre (over 200ft) high exhaust chimney, alongside a new building 39 metres (126 ft) high. It will burn 20,000 tonnes of Biofuel (vegetable oil) a year, requiring up to eight tanker deliveries per day.
If this power station is built:
· Local air quality will get worse – to add to the growing pollution from Heathrow and from local traffic. Vegetable oil burning emits nitrogen oxides and small particulates linked to respiratory illnesses and heart problems. · Global greenhouse gas levels will increase, increasing the risk of runaway climate change · People in other areas of the world, like South-east Asia and South America could be displaced from their homes to allow the necessary vegetable oil plants to be grown · It will NOT provide local people with cheaper electricity · Apart from during the building work, it will provide few if any extra jobs
Blue NG says the power station is going to help tackle global warming, but many scientists are warning that burning Biofuels does quite the opposite. If we use vegetable oil for fuel, more land worldwide needs to be turned into plantations, which means more deforestation and more fossil-fuel fertilisers. Growing crops to burn also means that land is taken away from food production, at a time when over one billion people are going hungry.
In Germany, there has been growing concern over air pollution and nuisance caused by noise and smell from vegetable oil power stations. In 2008, a court revoked planning permission for one that had been in operation since 2006 because of noise and air quality problems.
In total, Blue NG want to build 8 biofuel power stations, each one adding to the problem.
London Borough of Ealing has the authority to decide planning permission for the one at The Straight, and has to take account of comments sent in by residents.
A fuller report on Blue NG and their plans for biofuel power stations is here .
Or comment on the application in your own words: [N.B Quick-to-use proforma letter below]
1. See what is proposed:
Use reference number P/2009/0780 in any communication
Suggested Outline Letter for Non-Ealing Residents
Dear Sir,
Planning application ref number P/2009/0780
I am writing to object to the plans for Blue NG to build a power station at The Straight in Southall.
I am concerned that local residents will suffer poorer air quality and risk health problems because of the exhaust fumes. Vegetable oil burning emits nitrogen oxides and small particulates which can cause or aggravate various health issues, including respiratory problems. The local authority’s plan for Ealing states that air quality should be improved; the proposed power plant would undermine those promises.
Residents will get no benefits in terms of jobs or lower energy prices.
The power station has been promoted as being good for the environment because it uses biofuels instead of gas or coal. But many scientists have serious concerns that burning biofuels will actually make global warming worse because more demand for vegetable oil means more ecosystems will be converted to agriculture, either directly or indirectly, and because more fossil-fuel based fertilisers will need to be used. More land for fuel also means less land for food, when record numbers of people are already going hungry.
Britain has better options to produce clean electricity for example using wind, tidal and solar power, which don’t have these negative effects.
Please refuse permission for this development.
Yours faithfully,
The planning officer at Ealing Council for this application is Paul Gardiner. John Freeman in Environmental Health is handling environmental impacts and has been taking the lead regarding air pollution impacts.
This page on Ealing Council's website has useful information about the site for the proposed power station. The three councillors for the Southall Broadway ward where the power station is to be built are:
Jagdish Gupta (Con) - member of the Health Committee
Zahida Abbas Noori (Lab) - member of the Planning Committee Manjit Singh (Con) - member of the Transport and Environment Committee |
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Objecting to Southall Biofuel Power Station |