Allerton incinerator - money to burn? (From York Press)

Allerton incinerator - money to burn?

10:52am Friday 2nd November 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

The Press of October 31 reported that the proposed incinerator at Allerton will provide the power to heat 40,000 homes. Unfortunately this is not the case.

The incinerator could provide the heat for 40,000 homes, half of all the homes in York, if it were built close to 40,000 homes. As the proposal is to build the incinerator in the middle of nowhere, it will heat a total of zero homes. In the process it will waste £1 billion pounds of heat in 20 years. Half the energy produced will be wasted.

At a time when money is tight and most of us understand the need to cut our use of fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions, our politicians have agreed a madcap plan to build an incinerator in the middle of nowhere.

Think what our region could do with £1 billion pounds. Think how many jobs could be created; think of pensioners and the poor shivering in their homes while all this heat is poured into the sky.

In Sweden, they use similar plants to heat 850,000 homes. Amey Cespa knows this, they know wouldn’t be allowed to do what they will do here in any other country in Europe. We might as well be keeping warm by lighting piles of £20 notes.

Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.