A unanimous decision was made by Chepstow town councillors to oppose an application to build two 15m chimneys for a thermal waste plant.

The decision, made at the council’s meeting last Wednesday (22nd November), is the latest opposition to the plans. Almost 300 objections to the application have so far been submitted to Monmouthshire County Council (MCC).

The application, submitted by Bristol-based DPS Process Solutions Limited in June, details plans to to build a pair of 15.5m flue stacks on an existing unit on the Severn Bridge Industrial Estate in Portskewett, namely the former Tata Steel site, which was previously used for commercial vehicle manufacturing.

The proposed flue stacks would be required to facilitate the emission and dispersion of exhaust gases from the thermal treatment plant, which would process up to 20,000 tonnes of non-hazardous materials per year.

Members of the campaign group Severnside Together Opposing Pollution (STOP) made a presentation to Chepstow councillors at the start of the meeting. The group has already submitted a list of concerns over the application, particularly over the results of the air quality assessment.

This report, included in the planning application, found predicted pollution levels would be “acceptable for the protection of human health, vegetation and habitats,” and Natural Resources Wales concluded that air emissions would be “not likely to be significant to the scientific features of the protected sites.”

However, STOP claims the base data used in these predictions is hypothetical and “cannot be substantiated by actual data”.

The application also states the operation of the stacks will “not create high levels of noise,” however there are concerns over the lack of figures.

Correspondence submitted by MCC confirms that an Environmental Statement is not required to support the application and the proposal is unlikely to result in a significant adverse effect on the environment.

This conclusion was reached taking into account the scale and nature of the proposed flute stacks, the size of the site, the existing use of the site and possible effects from the proposal.

However in many of these cases it was determined the facility would have a significant effect as it “will be controlled by permit and modelling data states below relevant harmful thresholds”.

The application also includes six steel storage containers, which would be screened by existing trees on the site.

Planning permission to use the site as a waste treatment site under B2 (General Industrial) Use Class was approved by Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) earlier this year.