Public anger over asphalt plant

@Patrick, welcome aboard! @Mike, can Ben and I at least meet before we are deported together? :D

@ Tom Spragg,
Aah Vestas, the company living in the Stag Lane "White elephant", that lays the golden egg according to some on here, but in truth the egg is long since addled.
Vestas pulled out of plans for a proposed Sheerness wind turbine factory in June because government would not guarantee Vestas billions of pounds of taxpayers money.
Earlier this year the finance chief of Vestas, the world's largest maker of wind turbines, quit and other directors will not be seeking re-election to the board.
The upheaval came after Vestas reported a loss about four times greater than analysts had expected.
Vestas made a loss last year (2011) of 166m euros, compared with a 156m-euro profit a year earlier. Nice one!
After the way they treated 600 islanders, it could not happen to a more deserving company.

Poxy link doesn't work.

Try searching for TCP/10727/P or P/00941/09. It's then the second pdf down

For all those people who think the proposed plant does not look all that bad, please remember that this artist's impression is how the applicant would like you all to think it would look. But only after many years.

Now take a look at the artist's impression contained in the Vestas planning application from 2009:

http://www.iwight.com/council/departments/planning/appsDIP/temptifpdf/nzyu4255crkeshjitjmhtv55120809081133.pdf

Good, isn't it?

Dear Kevin,

I did not say you were ignorant. I merely said that you (and others) may be ignorant of the planning application details. To which you have now admitted by saying that you had not read the relevant section thoroughly. Even Patrick has performed a U-turn after reading the application thoroughly!

Regarding the conveyor belt, I appreciate you said "if there were a conveyor belt". But the fact remains, there is not one proposed by the applicant. The application as submitted is what matters, not other people's idea of what it should have been, or how it could be.

Wow Ben I remember all that!!

I was at Souters and later FMB

Busy days :-)

(And I seem to recall that the bloke who dove the crane at G&B was an old school mate or mine from Sandown if I was informed correctly)

Actually I've changed my mind about this - an authentic U-turn in fact. Having now seen the site plan and read the cultural heritage report I can see that the proposed plant is actually on land to the south of the former railway sidings which is the site of former oyster beds, now covered by landfill. This is outside the actual area previously occupied by the coal wharf and its associated paraphernalia, and having been used as a rubbish tip, I think it should now be either returned to nature or designated for amenity use, especially given its proximity to the popular cycle track / footpath.
I've now nailed my colours to the pro-Blackwater mast!

furthermore ok so the aggregate may be moved by lorry from the wharf by the crane to the plant, where is the problem in that? the aggregate would be moved only when a ship comes in, if anyone has paid any attention then they would realise the aggregate ships for bardons only come in once every 3 or 4 weeks, its not like its a daily occurance and it wouldnt be much more for eurovia, also the noise volume of that would be no different than that of the yacht haven or shepards wharf during cowes week! maybe some people who are complaining dont realise but medina wharf used to be home to gubbins and ball who ran a concrete operation as well as aggregate supplies and lorry hire, the road linking arctic road and newport road was built in the late 1980's for the purpose of serving medina wharf as prior to that all the lorries travelled along arctic road and joined newport road down near bridge road, the road was purpose designed and built as a haul road for lorries from medina wharf. i do wond

Ben for crying out loud, stop putting sensible and logical facts forward or I will have to deport you to England along with Julia

i like the way people are saying 38 jobs could be lost if the plant down medina wharf is built, it shows how much people have not done their research, the tarmac plant at bardon vectis does not require 38 people to run it, it never has done, the 38 people are throughout the whole site! i wont lie i happen to think its a good idea to have the plant built at medina wharf, its regenerating an industrial area and before anyone says its not near my house, i live in cowes not far from medina wharf and have done for all of my life and im still all for the plant, those people who say bardon vectis's plant is good enough, are you aware that its actually cheaper to buy tarmac on the mainland and pay to have it shipped over here in lorries than it is to buy from bardon vectis? when the road outside sainsburys was resurfaced recently the tarmac used came from john wainwright who are based in somerset, how can that be environmentaly friendly????

Something else for you protesters to have a go at, the Porter Club in Lake want a licence until 2.00 am in the morning!!

i will happily withdraw my last statement, i did not read thoroughly the section concerned, and as for being ignorant, i dont recall slighting anyone in my opinions, it is a free exchange of thoughts and they are not based on ignorance, one way or the other. and i did not say there would be a conveyor belt, i merely mentioned that if that were the case there would be less pollution

Dear Kevin,
I don't know where you get the idea that aggregate will be transferred from ship to plant by conveyor belt. If you had read the application as thoroughly as Julia Hill appears to have done, you would know that this transfer is proposed to be by crane and then HGV. I wonder how many other opinions are formed by ignorance of the application details.

In reality Kevin, the Lorry trips would not be halved. There is one road, in one direction in and out of Medina Wharf. The aggregate is not the only material being transported to the site. Up to 160 tonnes of road planings will be brought to the site per day. These will come from all over the Island before the new asphalt product (3 lorries full per hour) is distributed. Bardon Vectis is central, lorries will arrive there from various directions "sharing" the impact out, rather than placing all the pressure on one residential area at Arctic/Newport Road.

but how does it get from the wharfe to the plant, my argument is that the lorries create more noise and pollution than if there is a conveyor belt from a ship to the plant, there will be no pollution from lorries, except when they deliver, they will have to deliver from the current site as well but halving the lorry trips must make sense

Julia, this is no place to talk in a sensible manner and putting forward logical solutions and answers.

When objecting to the concrete plant at the Medina in2010 Edward Giles said just because there is some ugliness is no reason to make somewhere more ugly. If we spread the industrialisation along the river we set an unhealthy precedent for the future. Development in 2012 should be about moving forward, not backwards to the 19th century. There is already an asphalt plant on the Island, it already uses imported aggregate brought into the wharf. If that one is modernised the situation would not change greatly in terms of traffic on arctic road from the current situation. Use of the existing site at St Georges makes sense for all concerned. Modernisation will improve the situation for the comparatively few people in the immediate area there and 38 jobs will be retained.

Every Islander complains about the lack of jobs, and when a company decides to offer a future that does not revolve around visiting the job centre every week, everyone rejects it! No wonder the majority of students do not want to move back to the island, there are no jobs, opportunities or dreams. The asphalt produced by this plant will be suitable to resurface the roads on the island, which would definitely make it easier on the council. I'm sure the island could benefit from this opportunity, even if it will upset a few people. I think the ignorance of people on this island is incredible.

SNOBS.If it was built anyway else on the Island their would not care.Its a case of'not on my doorstep' .Their do not really care about the environmental impact all their care about is how it will effect their house prices.

im sure these objections were started up by red funnel or wightlink, if the riverside plant gets built, all the stock it needs will be brought in by boat, probably their own boat and offloaded straight into the plant, if the blackwater plant is used all materials will have to come in by road and that means a continual stream of lorries travelling from the ferry to the plant, at all hours of the day and night, 7 days a week, i bet the lorries give out more pollution than the boat and the plant combined would, just my opinion

Lets dangle an enormous mirror from the giant rusty derelict crane that dominates the town with such poise and grace - that way people from Cowes would simply see a reflection of themselves instead of the plant. For people to the South, all we have to do is build another giant crane and dangle another enormous mirror, ditto the regions East and West. Result: an invisible asphalt plant and 3 more of our beloved and beautiful giant cranes.

It is about the same size, colour and shape to the eye from a distance as the grain dryer that is sticking up out of the bottom end of that very large field in wellow(next to Wellow top road) where they want to put up the wind turbines.So the visual argument is not good enough to stop it in my opinion.
The lorry movements are no big deal either as the road was made for lorry movements avoiding the old way off of arctic road.
Its the air pollution levels where the resedents of Cowes stand the best chance of throwing the plan out.
Their problem is that the low emmission plant is exactly that a low emmission plant.There will be very low emmissions, the equivilent of a couple of domestic "Bonfirenight" fires in a Cowes back garden on November 5th.
The petrochemical plant at Fawley pollutes the Island every day there is a North Westerly wind with a much heavier dose of exactly the same stuff. When it starts raining and the visability is low just watch Fawley light their stacks

why do people buy houses next to an industrial area and a working wharf, and then moan about the industry there, it really is rather odd
behaviour.
this plant will obviously fit well in the environment there Look at stag
lane, which has that huge ugly vestas building , again on what has
always been industrial land. I was not happy about vestas, but it is
an industrial area, built on a former cement mill.I dread more the
possible housing that may follow filled with moaning minnies like those
whipping up a storm over nothing in cowes..
I can always decide to move if i choose should that happen, i do not believe creating jobs and industry in any way stagnates house prices,
rather the reverse i would have thought.

@Lee.
I think the lorries from the plant would use the link road between Medina Wharf and Newport Road, which was built a few years ago precisely to take lorries away from Arctic Road. The grain lorries and also the aggregate lorries currently visiting the site certainly do not use the residential part of Arctic Road (as far as I am aware).

I think the concerns are to do with the considerable INCREASE in numbers of lorries using Arctic Road, over and above those already using it

I went in to my local garden centre to see if I could buy one of these asphalt plants to see what all the fuss was about but they had none in stock.
"Concerns were also raised about lorries travelling to and from the plant along Arctic Road."
What about the lorries from Island grain etc that are already using it!!?

Dear Patrick,

Glad you agree on Frank James! No, I don't have similar objections to the expansion of the Black Water plant, although asphalt plants are never a good thing and the environmental impact must be limited as far as possible. The Blackwater Plant is already there and employs people locally, why then build another one along a sensitive river habitat?

What I do object to in general is the PFI deal which will tie us to a 25 year long very risky contract - where private companies will be the only winners - as well as the re-industrialisation of the beautiful Medina Valley. Today, we know and can do better...

Tanja et al,
I take on board what you say (and thoroughly agree regarding the Frank James Hospital). Is it just the Medina Wharf site that you object to, or would you object to any similar proposal on the Island? The company selected to improve and maintain our roads for the next 25 years need an asphalt plant somewhere locally. Do you have similar objections to the modernisation and enlargement of the existing plant at Blackwater Quarry?

Dear Patrick Hall,

Just because it was bad there once doesn't mean we have to do it all over again. True development means we move away from what was bad, then take what was good and refine it. It seems today we are doing the opposite: We are throwing away what was good - for example by letting old beautiful buildings such as the former Frank James Hospital stand and rot until they fall down - and we glorify the bad.

I think it is time we start creating a society that respects our past heritage and our environment for real. No, that doesn't mean we need to go back to the stone age, it means that we should know better by now than to put a totally unnecessary asphalt plant along a sensitive river habitat. That has nothing to do with softness, it just means we have started to think that little bit further...

For patrick. Twit,

I remember fifty years ago when that site was a huge railway wharf where nearly all of the Island's coal supplies were landed. Shunting was carried on from the early hours every except Sunday. There was constant noise, smoke and coal dust, but I don't remember anyone complaining about air pollution, or health issues, or the effect on house values (most working class people lived in rented houses then anyway).
Industry on the Medina has long been a very necessary fact of Island life and long may it continue.
People have gone soft if you ask me.

Any views or opinions presented in the comments above are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the Isle of Wight County Press.