Protesters voiced their anger towards councillors after controversial plans for a waste incinerator at Dovesdale Farm were today, Tuesday, passed at the council’s Hamilton headquarters.

Members of South Lanarkshire Council’s planning committee voted 14 to nine in favour of the motion which will see a £50m waste sorting and recovery facility built less than 1.5km south of Stonehouse, on Carlisle Road.

There were shouts of disgust from the public gallery after the application by Scotgen (South Lanarkshire) Ltd, which had received around 20,000 letters of objection, was approved.

Campaigners from the Action Group Against Dovesdale Incinerator (AGADI) and residents of the area heckled councillors “You’ve got it wrong”, “Enjoy your blood money” and “See you in May” in reference to the elections.

The result followed a lengthy two hour discussion where Lloyd Brotherton the project manager at Scotgen and James Cook, the application’s agent explained the reasons for the current deficit in recycling and the resource recovery capacity in South Lanarkshire.

Gavin Haddow from Stonehouse Community Council and Gareth Jones and Alison Walker from AGADI questioned the applicant and presented their arguments against the plans for health reasons, recycling issues and proposed the inefficiency of the incinerator to the committee.

Scotgen now have permission to construct and operate the waste management facility, which has the capacity to handle up to 150,000 tonnes of waste every year. This will bring around 50 new jobs to the area.

New jobs

Comparing the Dovesdale Farm plant to Scotgen’s existing plant in Dargavel in Dumfries, Mr Brotherton told campaigners the facility would bring employment opportunities to the area as well as providing a 94 per cent diversion of waste from the landfill.

He said: “With the level of job expectation we have no need to bring in workers from another area. All the staff in the Dumfries plant live locally and we would expect that to be the same for this site and we will provide them with training.”

After his speech, objectors questioned the applicant on the 281 breaches and 37 bypasses at Dumfries, as well as the fact that no energy had been generated at the plant.

Mr Brotherton said: “We are as disappointed as anybody that we’ve not been able to generate energy.

“In reference to the breaches a higher percentage of hazardous waste is used so there is a higher temperature than there will be at Carlisle Road.

“The breaches are mainly concerned with temperatures being too high, and we're working on reducing this and cutting it out altogether.”

Whisper of support

AGADI’s Gareth Jones said he was “staggered” that the Dovesdale Farm application was not considered for full council debate and told members the action group felt it would have been more acceptable if elected members from Avondale Stonehouse and Clydesdale South had their say.

He highlighted that the incinerator plant, which would be the size of two football pitches would be similar in scale and industrial significance to that at Ravenscraig and Grangemouth.

Mr Jones said: “People fear for their health. They cannot conclusively prove there are no health risks.

“Scotgen have had hundreds of operational breaches. A taxi driver in Hamilton or a kebab shop in Larkhall would be shut down or closed if they had the same problem.

"They have not produced a single simmer of power.

“It is the wrong answer to our waste problem and we are scared of it.

“When 20,000 people who’ve never contacted the council, written to an MSP or spoken to a councillor write a letter of objection, this decision should be taken into account.”

Local councillor Peter Craig added there had not been a "whisper of support" for the planning application.

Councillor Ian Gray led the opposition to the application with eight other councillors rejecting the plan however it was not enough to stop the project from going ahead.

Click here to view STV Hamilton's gallery from the demonstration.