Anti-incinerator group to screen environmental film in Churchdown

Anti-incinerator campaigners are screening an award-winning environmental documentary in Churchdown tomorrow, in a bid to persuade residents that the proposed £500 million waste burner is bad news for Gloucestershire.

Cannes award-winning movie, Trashed, starring Hollywood actor Jeremy Irons - himself a staunch supporter of the anti-incinerator campaign - will be screened at the GL3 Community Hub on Cheltenham Road East. Doors open from 7.15pm and admission is free.

The event is being hosted by the community centre and supported by Churchdown Parish Council, which is one of 15 parish councils opposed to the incinerator plan.

Gloucestershire County Council wants waste firm Urbaser Balfour Beatty to build an incinerator at Javelin Park, near junction 12 of the M5 at Haresfield, to deal with 92 per cent of Gloucestershire's residual household waste.

Diana Shirley, spokeswoman for campaign group GlosVAIN, said: "We hope as many people as possible will come along to see this film.

"It raises the wider issues surrounding Gloucestershire's own plans for an incinerator."

Meanwhile, protesters will challenge councillors later today when the county council planning committee visits the site to see where the energy-from-waste plant would be built if given the go-ahead.

Campaign groups will descend on the area at 9.30am to let their views be known to the decision makers, in a protest organised by GlosVAIN.

* A decision on the incinerator will be made by Gloucestershire county councillors next Thursday (March 21) at a public meeting at 10am at Kingsholm Stadium in Gloucester.