OHMYGOSSIP — Alan Titchmarsh has slammed plans to build a “towering” incinerator which will loom over his countryside home.
The 72-year-old TV gardener has said he is “saddened” by the “inappropriate and irresponsible” proposal put forward by waste giants Veolia, who want to build an incinerator with two 80-metre chimneys in the heart of the Hampshire countryside.
Alan – who owns a £1 million home in Holybourne, near Alton – is one of more than 5,000 people to oppose the plans, which make it one of the UK’s most objected planning applications.
Under the controversial proposals, a huge incinerator will be built in the celebrated area next to the South Downs National Park and will burn up to 350,000 tonnes of industrial and commercial waste a year.
The incinerator will be 150 metres long, 40 metres high, and will have two 80 metre chimneys.
Alan said in his opposition to the plans: “At a time when we are all rightly being urged to organise our lives so we re-use, recycle and repurpose materials it is quite irresponsible to build a towering incinerator in a rural part of a county which already has three incinerators – in Portsmouth, Southampton and Basingstoke.
“Positioning a fourth on the edge of the South Downs National Park in a rural situation is not only inappropriate, it is irresponsible.
“It saddens me after a year when the countryside and green open spaces have proved their worth in terms of our mental health that such a proposal should even be considered.
“I do hope that common sense and the potentially deleterious effect of such an undertaking will result in a rejection of these totally inappropriate plans.”
The Environment Agency has launched a public consultation into the plans, but Veolia claim the waste-to-energy plant will provide electricity for around 75,000 homes and stop 400,000 tonnes of waste being sent to landfill.
Phil Spencer, host of Channel 4’s ‘Location, Location, Location’, also lives nearby and has previously spoken out against the plans.
He said: “If this proposal goes ahead, this enormous waste incinerator will be the first significant building after passing the county boundary signs welcoming you to ‘Jane Austen’s County’.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online
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