I have been getting quite a bit of mail about the planning application that is in for a palm oil power plant at Avonmouth, so I thought it would be helpful to repeat what I know here too.
I know and accept all the arguments about unsustainable biofuel. It is crazy on lots of levels to cut down rainforest (usually) and replace it with plantations. There is damage to biodiversity, a loss of potential food generation for local people and it's not even very carbon friendly when you factor in the carbon sink loss. However...
Legally, planning decisions cannot take into account whether people are generally "against this sort of thing" or concerns about impact elsewhere - if it's a legal operation, then it is only the local impacts that can be used in the assessment. Being opposed to biofuel isn't going to win the argument here. The planning decision will be made on the basis of things like traffic, air pollution, flooding, biodiversity, safety or visual amenity. Objections that go in that talk about these sorts of things will be far more effective than ones that talk about orang utans.
I know that some people think that this is wrong and I probably agree with them, at least to an extent. However, it is only reasons based in planning law that can be used to inform a decision. Failure to do so would simply lead to an appeal to an inspector that would be accepted, taking all control away from the Council. As I understand it, there are strong planning concerns about the application and these could well lead to its rejection.
Sadly, the last two governments have eroded the powers that local councils have, including in planning decisions - and there are plans to take even more away. I guess what I am trying to stress here is that whatever decision is taken cannot be seen as a reflection on Bristol or the Council - the same standards are applied nationally and we are just unlucky that it's landed here. I'd love to have the power to arbitrarily veto planning applications, but sadly I don't!
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