Nearly 700 local residents and business owners packed the meeting at Chester-field's Winding Wheel to express fears about the plans for Sheepbridge Resource Park.

Cyclamax – the company behind the £35m development, which would be on the former Cammac Coal Site, on Dunston Road – submitted plans to Derbyshire County Council last summer but have faced growing opposition.
Julie Harrington, spokeswoman for the Chesterfield Against Incinerators campaign group, said that the meeting demonstrated the level of concern about the plant.

Overwhelming

She said: "We have had an overwhelming response from the public and business owners since Thursday.

"From people offering advice and support to expert consultants, website designers, people with local knowledge of the site and also people wanting to donate towards the solicitor's fees to challenge the application."

Speaking at the meeting, Cyclamax's managing director Tony Watkins said the plant would generate renewable energy by burning waste and recycle 13,000 tonnes of material a year that would otherwise go to landfill.

Chesterfield Against Incinerators then set out reasons for their opposition, focusing on the proximity to a large population and the suitability of gasification technology.

Retired GP and renowned researcher into the effects of industrial pollution, Dr Dick van Steenis, travelled from Wales to share his expert knowledge.

He summarised the increases in health complaints, including asthma, heart attacks and cancers, that studies have shown have occured in areas near incinerators and warned that these could be seen in Chesterfield if the gasification plant gets the go-ahead.

But Cyclamax disputed the findings of this research and other "unsubstantiated claims" made by objectors.

Rick Twomey, company technical director, said after the meeting: "One of the principle arguments made against the Resource Park was about the microscopic particles called PM2.5 and the damage they cause.

"PM2.5 are generated by many industries as well as motor vehicles. It takes just 2.5 days for traffic on a three-mile stretch of the A61 around Chesterfield to generate the same amount of particulate pollution the Sheepbridge gasification plant would in a whole year."

Mr Twomey also confirmed that Cyclamax has been contacted by more than 50 companies wanting to provide goods and services to the Resource Park and more than 75 people have asked about jobs.

* Chesterfield Borough Council's planners will decide whether to recommend the planning application for approval by the county council at a meeting at 6pm, on January 26, at the Winding Wheel.