Time to come back to the second update in the series on the emotional challenges of being a NiMBY and standing up to 'The Man'. I had planned to finish the series with a post focussed on the idea of "not in anyone's back yard" but pulled it forward by popular demand.
Over the last three years Moy Park and the Poultry Industry have excelled at planning the idea than an incinerator is vital for the survival of the industry into the Northern Ireland psyche. Seven thousand jobs depend on it - or so the story goes. The recurring rhetoric has been that there is "No Plan B" and there are "No Alternatives." If you've read my other posts you'll appreciate that I think this is scaremongering of the worst kind, there are alternatives and if either investors or industry analysts thought that the Moy Park business was hurtling towards the precipice Marfrig shareholders would be charging for the exits.
All that said, the rhetoric has been very sticky within political, business and government circles in Northern Ireland. I've met with senior members of the assembly, NIO, InvestNI and the business community on other issues over the last few months. The CALNI campaign has reached the level where it inevitably comes up in conversation. Without fail the retort is that "well, it has to go somewhere!" There have even been times when it has got quite nasty, with people accusing me of just trying to pass the problem onto someone else, muttering expletives about NiMBY's under their breath, and being emphatic that if it has to go somewhere it might as well be Glenavy!
All the scientific, planning, business and technical factors some to zero and the discussion degenerates into playground politics; why are CALNI trying to push this onto someone else!!??
Let me make my position and the position of everyone involved with CALNI completely clear. We think incineration is the wrong technology to solve the problem and we would not wish the Moy Park Incinerator on any community in Northern Ireland.
We are out and out NiABYs, "Not in Anyone's Back Yard!"
Early in our campaign we came across a quote from Michelle Gildernew, now agriculture Minister, where she emphatically stated that she wouldn't bring up a family within ten miles of one of these plants. I'm firmly of the same view having digested all the information available.
Stepping back, at the most basic level incineration is a very contentious issue in Northern Ireland as in many other parts of the world. Three of the five major parties in the assembly are firmly against it in their manifesto (Sinn Fein, the SDLP & the Alliance). The others appear to be pro incineration at the party level (so long as it is in someone else's back yard); but anti at the local level. Diane Dodds MEP of the DUP is case and point; she praised the decision to progress the Glenavy Incinerator, but led the fight against the Incinerator on the North Foreshore!
Through 2009 we had a rather strange situation which set the local councils in Lisburn and Ballymena at loggerheads. Ballymena took the position that they were pro Incineration ("in Glenavy"), within the Lisburn Council area. They began to actively lobby other councils beginning with Carrickfergus, asking that they throw their weight behind Incineration ("in Glenavy"). This came to an abrupt halt once someone pointed out that after a formal site selection survey the top ranking site to locate a poultry litter incinerator in NI was the vacant Mitchilen Plant (in Ballymena), with the site ranked second at Kilroot, in the Carrickfergus council area!
From my perspective, all this stress and conflict stems from the strategic direction chosen by the Moy Park executive team. The simple truth is that they have put the full weight of their commercial and political machine behind a solution that splits the political parties in Northern Ireland; and more specifically no community wants in their locality or should have to bear. The proposed plant is not acceptable in anyone's back yard!
My suggestion is that they acknowledge that no community in Northern Ireland wants this solution; and focus their energy on developing some alternatives that are palatable across our society. They have the power to shape the future of Northern Ireland in a positive way and could set a great example to all of industry by choosing a path to litter disposal that reflected local opinion.
There are plenty of great alternatives out there, as you'll see in my "What there are alternatives!!??" series of posts. Most of the successful ones initiate virtuous circles where everyone wins.
Best,
Danny
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t: dannymoore_ni
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