Travellers join villagers to campaign against resource park plan - Northamptonshire

From the Northamptonshire Telegraph

Travellers have joined forces with villagers to oppose plans for a resource recovery park, which developers say will create 3,000 jobs for Corby and the surrounding area.

Families living at the Travellers’ camp in Gretton Brook Road, Corby, have joined a new campaign group launched to fight the plans.

Gretton Brook Estates Limited has submitted an outline planning application to Corby Council for the resource recovery park on Brookfield Plantation, between Corby and Gretton, near the Travellers’ camp.

The company says the development, where companies would use waste to generate energy, is expected to attract more than £100m in long-term investment for Corby.

On Wednesday (February 20) members of the travelling community met Gretton residents at the village hall to discuss the proposals.

They have now launched Corby Against Rubbish Recovery Plant (CARRP) to oppose the scheme.

Traveller Griff Williams, who lives on the Gretton Brook Road camp site, said: “A lot of people think that we are squatting on the site tax free but this isn’t true. We are the leaseholders of the site where we live and we pay our council tax.

“The waste plant will ruin our home and will be a danger to our children who live on the site. We are happy to be working together with Gretton villagers and we won’t give in.”

Travellers and the villagers say that if planning permission is granted then they will be forced to put up with unpleasant smells coming from the site, as well as noise and high levels of heavy goods traffic.

Gretton resident Austin Clark said: “We have to stop Corby from being turned into Britain’s dumping ground. If the planning application succeeds then waste will be brought in by the lorry load from miles around.

“The developers will profit and the people who pay the taxes will be forced to put up with the stench and the traffic that the waste plant will produce.”

The CARRP campaign group is hold regular meetings and will be organising peaceful protest marches. It will also be setting up a fighting fund and a waste plant focus group.

Cllr Rob McKellar, who represents Weldon and Gretton on Corby Council, said: “Local people have come out in their droves to oppose the rubbish recovery pant application. This is something that will have a negative impact on the whole of the Corby area, with no local benefit whatsoever.”

The public consultation process on the scheme ends on March 4.