PROTESTORS gathered outside the Hamworthy Club in Canford Magna last week to voice their opposition against a proposed incinerator.
Members of the Extinction Rebellion Wimborne Pink Rebels held placards and sang incinerator-inspired songs on Friday (May 9).
The protest was timed to coincide with a meeting held by BCP councillors for residents in the Bearwood and Merley ward to question MVV Environment, who have applied to BCP Council for planning permission to build the incinerator.
The proposed Energy from Waste Combined Heat and Power facility could burn up to 260,000 tonnes of waste every year and is planned to be built at the Canford Resource Park.
The incinerator would burn non-hazardous rubbish to produce electricity, which would then help supply the National Grid.
Joanna Bury of XR Wimborne said the proposed incinerator would burn waste “on our doorstep 24/7 for 40 years”.
READ MORE: Wimborne XR members take to Windsor Castle to call for action on climate crisis
She said: “The people of Wimborne and the surrounding area are facing a serious public health threat if this incinerator goes ahead.
“We’re not just talking about a local issue — incineration is one of the dirtiest forms of energy production.”
Ecological scientist, professor James Bullock, said that if the plans are approved, it would be a step backwards in Dorset’s climate responsibilities.
He said: “The emissions, the biodiversity damage, and the reliance on a polluting system of waste management – it all runs counter to the environmental leadership we urgently need.”
The group is now calling on all BCP and Dorset councillors to attend the key planning meeting at BCP Council on 12 June and to oppose the incinerator proposal.
Extinction Rebellion said public opposition is growing fast, with community members increasingly alarmed by the proximity of the plant to schools, homes, and protected natural spaces.
“We urge every councillor to stand up for their constituents and reject this plan,” Joanna Bury added.
Council case officer Gareth Ball has said the project should go ahead, with the condition that after 40 years the building is removed from the land.
He said this would “improve BCP and Dorset moving towards self-sufficiency” to dispose of its waste.
The Environment Agency (EA) said it is likely to grant a permit for the proposed incinerator.
The EA has launched a final consultation on the permit, with comments to be received by May 23.
Follow XR Wimborne for updates and ways to get involved.
Phillip Duffy, CEO of the Environment Agency should be ashamed that it took him almost a year, in addition to a prompt from my MP, to respond on 9 May 2025 to my six-page letter to him dated 19 June 2024.
My letter was headed “Environment Agency’s ongoing failure to ensure that advice received about the adverse health effects of incinerator emissions was accurate”, and Mr Duffy’s one-page letter just relied upon the advice that my letters and the enclosures therein had proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the advice the Environment Agency has been relying upon when they claim that emissions don’t harm health is false.
I strongly object to this INCINERATOR. Surely it is against the law to affect your neighbour’s health, as this is so close to Schools and all the new homes being built. What are the medical proposals for looking after peoples health – young and old.