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Gloucestershire Business News

Protesters fan flames of controversy around incinerator

Protesters against the Gloucestershire incinerator stopped traffic and burned money this morning, fanning the flames of publicity around the controversial building project.

Before Christmas the county council withdrew  plans to fight a legal challenge against a decision forcing it to reveal more detail of the deal behind the decision to build the waste processing plant.

Any thoughts that detail, which included a Value for Money report from Ernst & Young showing an initial rise in costs of £100 million to £600 million, would be lost over the festive season have proved unfounded.

The new year began with an open letter from opposition councillors and the MP for Stroud, David Drew, calling for a full public inquiry - and then this morning protesters rode the wave of publicity a little further.

Traffic along the B4008 heading for junction 12 of the M5 or the A38 Bristol Road at Haresfield was brought to a standstill as protesters blocked the site entrance to Javelin Park, where the Ubaser Balfour Beatty (UBB) building project is afoot.

Workmen stood on watching as the group stood their ground off the roundabout leading to the site.

Banners were unfurled declaring 'Burning money is worse than burning coal', 'UBB no risk - GCC all the risk', 'Rebel Rebel', 'Don't Fry the Planet' and 'Extinction Rebellion' - the latter representing one of the key protest groups against the county council project.

A makeshift fire on a metal wheel turned on its side was lit and a symbolic sacrifice of paper money burned.

All of which is the latest development in the on-going saga around the decision back in 2015 to build a waste incinerator on the land off the M5 in the shadow of the Cotswold escarpment.

Yesterday the Conservative group which leads the county council issued its rebuke to the open letter to Peter Bungard, the county council chief executive, and the ongoing protests against the project.

Read more: Incinerator deal saga remains red hot 

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