Families are fighting back against a proposed incinerator they fear will harm schoolchildren, vulnerable people and wildlife with chemicals it produces.
Just over a year after a landfill site left Newton Aycliffe, County Durham smelling like rotten eggs, residents say they face another threat to their picturesque village.
Plans submitted by Fornax Environmental Solutions were approved in 2021 but swiftly thrown out by the council which was concerned about the incinerator’s impact on air quality.
There were also fears about burning up to 9,800 tonnes of clinical and hazardous waste a year at a business park long dedicated to attracting companies offering high-paid jobs, including Hitachi and Fujitsu.
Now, months later, the project is back on track after a planning inspector approved the firm’s appeal.
A 10,000-tonne incinerator, which lies within a mile of a nursery, a primary school and a sixth form college, is being built and will be up and running next year.
But locals are making a last ditch attempt to stop plans, with a social media campaign gathering pace ahead of a consultation with the Environment Agency.
Kate Ridgway, 60, used to live in London and the Cotswolds before heading to the countryside by Newton Aycliffe for its peaceful and picturesque scenery.
The site of a proposed incinerator on Heighington Lane at the Aycliffe Business Park, Durham. Families are fighting back against plans they fear will harm schoolchildren, vulnerable people and wildlife
Plans for the site, pictured, submitted by Fornax Environmental Solutions were approved in 2021 but swiftly thrown out by the council which was concerned about its impact on air quality
Locals, including Rachel Weighell, pictured, are making a last ditch attempt to stop the proposal, with a social media campaign gathering pace
She told MailOnline: ‘It is beautiful here. We have cormorant, ducks, geese all outside our kitchen window.
‘They’ve built this monstrosity a mile from us. It’s clearly unsafe and a dumping ground for the north and Scotland.
‘What will happen is the lovely River Skerne, which has been raised from the dead [extensively cleaned] in the last 50 years, will go back to how it was before.’
She pointed out that it’s the latest environmental issue facing the area after locals reported a spate of headaches, skin rashes and nausea last year which they claimed were associated with a new landfill site at nearby Aycliffe Quarry.
At the time, residents said the majority of the waste causing the smell, blighting lives in the neighbouring villages of Aycliffe and Brafferton, was being driven 110 miles north from Hull in lorries.
Ms Ridgway added: ‘We’re being dumped on again. They’re there to take money and they simply don’t care.
‘People will have to move, although of course most won’t be able to move.
‘There’s been a slight attitude of, these rich southerners must know what’s best for us. Well, wake up, because that really is not the case at all.
Campaigners protesting against the incinerator, which lies within a mile of a nursery, a primary school and a sixth form college
There have been fears about burning up to 9,800 tonnes of clinical and hazardous waste a year at a business park long dedicated to attracting companies offering high-paid jobs
‘It’s a David versus Goliath situation. They’re obviously going to make a huge amount of money, or they wouldn’t be interested.
‘They would never do this in Chipping Norton – I’ve lived there.’
Fornax insisted the site will ‘meet and exceed all UK and EU strict rules on air emissions, odour control, and habitat protection’.
The company added that the incinerator will burn between 8,600 and 9,800 tonnes of waste per year, of which around 6,000 tonnes will be ‘infectious’ and 3,000 tonnes ‘hazardous’.
Rachel Weighell, 51, lives in the nearest housing estate to the incinerator, just 500m from the site, with her 14-year-old son.
She claimed that residents’ main frustration was a lack of information regarding the nature of the waste that will be burned.
Ms Weighell said: ‘These companies can’t tell us what they’re putting into the atmosphere. Surely it has to be a no until something is in black and white.
‘We know that in other parts of the country that mother’s breast milk has been contaminated because they live next to an incinerator, and obviously the child is taking the milk from their mother, and that is passing on things.
One of residents’ main frustrations has been a lack of information regarding the nature of the waste that will be burned (pictured: a campaigner)
Residents are worried about agriculture and local schools, including Little Cubs Day Nursery in the shadow of the proposed 10,000-tonne High Temperature Incineration facility
‘It is taking the likes of me, who is no better, richer or cleverer than anyone else, to physically get leaflets that somebody in my community has paid for out of their own pocket, to get them printed and distributed, just for people to go look what may be happening.
‘We need it postponed or suspended to give time for solicitors, lawyers, researchers and volunteers to get specific black and white information.’
Ms Weighell, who has lived in the area her entire life, is also worried about agriculture and local schools, including Little Cubs Day Nursery in the shadow of the proposed 10,000-tonne High Temperature Incineration facility.
‘I work for the biggest agricultural manufacturer in the country, Mole Valley Farmers, and we are having feed for animals made on our site at Piercebridge,’ she said.
‘We’re putting that feed into every farm in the North East of England that buy from us. What are the animals eating if all of this is in the air?
‘What about the children at nursery schools? There are, I think, 17 nursery schools within 12 miles. What about the primary schools, the sixth form colleges?’
Ms Weighell added that the incinerator is being fought by working class people who are worried about their livelihoods.
She said: ‘People are on the bread line, they are earning not much more than minimum wage, and they are putting what they can towards this because they care so passionately.
Campaigners against the proposed facility have been busy handing out leaflets in the local area
Ms Weighell’s son Seth and his best friend Oliver with their nextdoor neighbour’s twins pictured walking in the local area, just 500m from the incinerator site
‘What if my five bedroom house that’s currently valued at nearly £400,000, was to go on the market in six months. If this was passed, I might not get half of that.
‘I lost my husband to cancer two months ago, I’ve got a 14-year-old son who goes to the local comprehensive, I can’t sell my house, I’m living on a single, poorly paid wage from an agricultural company and just need to feed and protect my family to the best of my ability.’
She also pointed out that the Treasury’s Darlington Economic Campus, which opened in 2021, lies just six miles from the incinerator.
‘What happens when Keir Starmer wants to come and visit Darlington?’ she added. ‘What if the Treasury is up here and he has to put a mask on?’
Mark Henderson, 50, has lived in the area since he was 13 and used to work on the industrial park on which the current business district now stands.
‘One of the key things is that Aycliffe is a business park,’ he said. ‘A clinical and hazardous incinerator is not something you expect to see on a business park.
‘It is 600 metres away from a UTC College, one of the first in the country, to drive the challenge between education and industry.
‘You’ve got pupils in there that are coming in to grow themselves to be leaders within industry and work within industry, and yet you put them under the plume of a hazardous waste incinerator.
The local’s dog pictured playing in the Hitachi man made lake on the edge of Aycliffe Business Park, less than a mile from the proposed incinerator
An eight-hour consultation meeting with the Environment Agency will give locals the chance to voice their concerns and discover on what grounds they can object to the project (pictured: Brafferton village 1.5 miles from the site)
‘The challenge is the immediate business park, the immediate school, the immediate nursery. There’s a church and two secondary schools in Newton Aycliffe, and 1000s and 1000s of residents, including elderly and people with health concerns.
‘We’ve got two farms within a very small radius which have cattle and crops. We’ve got a cattle market, which is a brand new investment by Darlington Council.
‘We’re not being told the truth. The original planning application was turned down and, very secretly and quietly, they got it passed off without anybody really knowing about it. And if it wasn’t for the fact they had to go for their operations licence, nobody would really know about it.
He also drew attention to the Aycliffe Quarry landfill site, as well as a similarly new methane facility, called Warrens Emerald Biogas, at the business park.
The father-of-three added: ‘We’ve got the landfill site which is horrific when you drive down the A1 and you come off on the Newton Aycliffe junction. It’s causing the residents of a village called Brafferton absolute hell.
‘We’ve also got a methane facility and the smell is going across Newton Aycliffe, if you want another one in the mix, just for the fancy of it.
‘It just stinks, in two ways.
‘It’s not the classic, “not in my backyard”, it’s “not in many people’s backyards”.
An aerial view of the countryside surrounding the site which will house the Fornax incinerator
Aycliffe Village, pictured, has been affected by the stenchof a landfill over the last year and now residents are worried about a nearby incinerator
Mr Henderson joins many residents in being disappointed by a lack of jobs created by the proposed site, with Fornax confirming just 40 people will be hired.
‘It’s an absolute joke. What does it bring into the area? Absolute hell for everybody who lives there.’
Mark Appleby, meanwhile, has two children and lives just over a mile away from the incinerator site.
The 53-year-old army veteran said: ‘There are no positives at all. My main negative feelings are the lack of transparency, the lack of public knowledge about this, and my dealings with Durham County Council which have led me to believe that it’s been slid under the door.
‘Why does nobody know about this? The business right next to it, Aycliffe animal feed. They didn’t even know what it was.
‘The jungle drums are beating around the local populace. Nobody’s happy about it.
‘It’s just worrying, it’s a lovely area, it’s green belt, it’s heritage land. We’re right in the middle of a specialised opportunity area for protected species and things like newts and glow worms.
‘It’s going to affect farmers. The ground penetration, down to mineral level, is going to affect all the food that grows in that ground. The cattle that graze on the ground will not be able to take the milk.
Aycliffe Quarry, pictured, caused a nasty smell to carry around the area
An excavator pictured at Aycliffe Quarry in County Durham, which locals have claimed stinks so bad it’s ruining their lives and causing them to fall ill
‘There’s a lot of investors, like myself, I probably put about £350,000 in the house recently.
‘And I’m worried for the children. I’m worried for my future, my health, the family’s health, everybody else’s as well.
‘I rang my friend in conservation for advice and his first words were, “move house”, and I thought, “wow”.’
An upcoming consultation with the Environment Agency (EA) has been moved from June 16 to an unconfirmed date due to a sudden surge of interest in attending.
But Mr Appleby holds out little hope that the body, due to be represented by six officers in an eight-hour drop-in format, will use their power to stop the project.
He added: ‘I’ve dealt with the EA before with the landfill site and there was no strength involved. It was all very woke and “no blame culture”.’
Conservative Councillor Gerald Lee is also worried about the lack of information about the nature of the waste being burned.
He added that Fornax had said there was ‘no statutory requirement to report what’s going on at the site’ but they might make such reports on a ‘voluntary basis’.
Cllr Gerald Lee, pictured, expressed concerns over what happens when the wind does not blow in the area and emissions are not able to spread out
‘It is causing a lot of consternation, frustration, and, dare I say, anger as it hasn’t got the permit yet,’ he said.
Cllr Lee also expressed concerns over what happens when the wind does not blow in the area and emissions are not able to spread out.
‘We’ve been told the wind would disperse the emissions away,’ he said. ‘What happens on those still days when the wind isn’t blowing?
‘We’re talking about particles, which are heavier than air and will come straight down. What happens when it rains, particularly in this modern day and age with torrential downpour, which will sweep the particles to Earth? Or when it snows?
‘It will be falling on the factories, it’ll be falling in the fields where our animals are and ultimately will be fed into the rivers and washed into the sea.
‘One of the reasons I’ve asked the Environment Agency to come down is that the residents need to know on what grounds they can object.’
A spokesman for Fornax said: ‘We do not believe it is appropriate to comment on the environmental permit application at this time other than to say that we have provided all the required documentation to the regulator in advance of their detailed technical review.
‘Public and environmental safety is our number one priority and the new facility in Newton Aycliffe has already undergone extensive scrutiny and was approved by the planning Inspector following an enquiry in 2022.
‘During this process residents concerns were carefully considered and addressed by the governments planning inspector. The facility has been designed and built to meet and indeed exceed all UK and EU strict rules on air emissions, odour control, and habitat protection.
‘The fears concerning the impact that this facility will have on air quality and future employment uses are unfounded as clearly stated in the planning inspectors report.’
