Waste plant backer hits out at ‘hypocritical propaganda war’ against facility - and says some councillors have now been absent from meetings for nearly two years

David Drysdale also warned that Northern Ireland is facing a waste "timebomb" as countries we export rubbish to start closing their doors to such imports.

David Drysdale also hit out at the fact millions of pounds in public money has been spent defending legal challenges to the plant in Mallusk, on the north-western edge of Newtownabbey.

The DUP councillor was speaking ahead of fresh legal action in the coming weeks to get plans for the £240 million plant back on track.

In March 2022, the application was refused by the then-Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon, despite approvals at council planning stage.

Back in 2015, the then-environment minister Mark H Durkan had refused the plans too, with the decision later overturned in the courts.

The site could treat 300,000 tonnes of waste a year and provide energy to 30,000 homes.

But it has faced 5,000 objections submitted against its application since 2014, largely on health and environmental grounds.

Legal representatives are now set to engage in the appeals process in the coming days with a decision expected to be in April.

– WHO’S WHO AND WHAT’S WHAT –

The plant is supported by a body called Arc21, of which councillor Drysdale is the chairman.

Arc21 was formed in 2003 as an umbrella group for councils who wanted to organise their waste disposal together, taking advantage of an economy-of-scale instead of handling matters on an individual basis.

Today, it is made up of the following councils: Antrim and Newtownabbey, Belfast, Ards and North Down, Lisburn & Castlereagh, Mid and East Antrim, and Newry, Mourne and Down.

Arc21 is governed by 18 councillors from various parties.

An outfit called the Becon Consortium is the body which actually plans to build the plant.

And the driving force behind Becon is a private company called Indaver, which already runs waste operations in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and England.

Councillor Drysdale (who sits on Lisburn and Castlereagh council) said to date about £20m has been spent on the as-yet non-existent plant.

About £8m of that is public money, from a "cocktail" of sources – with much of it going on lawyers' fees.

(Becon says the overall cost of the plant is likely to be £240m.)

Councillor Drysdale said an apparent apathy has now set in among some councillors involved with Arc21, with low attendance at its regular monthly joint committee meetings.

“One of my first roles as chair was to look at the attendance of meetings," he said.

"I discovered that there were some councillors that had not been there for a nearly a year – and some nearly up to two years."

– ‘IF WE LANDFILL THIS STUFF, IN 20 YEARS WE WILL DIG IT UP AGAIN’ –

He dubbed waste-to-energy "the lesser of two evils, compared to landfill", adding: "If the DUP did get the minister’s role in a new Executive, I would be certainly be advocating that we do approve it.”

Last year, ahead of minister Mallon’s decision, the BBC Spotlight programme indicated that Antrim and Newtownabbey council wants to withdraw from the waste facility plans.

Alderman Drysdale said: “The council would gain about half a million pounds alone in rates, they have a golden goose sitting at their gates, but some would look to boil it.”

Objections to the proposal have seen concerns over a potential decrease in recycling as waste is diverted to be burned for energy, plus health fears linked to toxic fumes.

Councillor Drysdale said: “This is coming from those in a propaganda war and they put stuff out there that is proper Hans Christen Anderson stuff. You have to remember: there are about 500 of these operating in Europe."

When it comes to the idea of its toxic output, he said there would be more toxins released "from a firework display in one of our major cities for the next 10 years than there would be from one of our facilities".

“What sort of makes me smile is that a lot of people who are nay-sayers in all of this, the waste contractors they are using are sending their own residual waste down to incinerators the south of Ireland. So it is completely hypocritical.

“If other countries do close their doors like India has China has and other places around the world will, the problems are gathering and we need to take action.

"It’s going to come to 2030 and Westminster is going to say that no waste is to leave the shores here.

"In 20 years time, the youth of today will castigate us for putting this stuff into the ground.

“They’ll be digging it up to take it out, because the environmentalists in 20 years time will say that this was an appalling way to get rid of waste, and we are hearing that already."

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