BRADFORD Council has just made the devastating decision to ignore all the advice of the World Health Organisation and approve the waste incinerator at Marley – the first to be located in a valley bottom.

Now, from Gargrave to Bradford, we will all live, work or go to school within range of a facility creating 24/7 some of the most deadly chemical emissions known to science.

How could the people of Airedale and the surrounding area let this creep up on them?

Somehow, information that should have been freely available has been hard to come by (even councillors in adjacent but vulnerable wards had been unaware). Inevitably, those who had made themselves aware, did the research and protested, were called a minority. Bingo!

The outcome is Airedale is to be the site of a dangerous experiment. The developers cite 11 other plants already in operation. Not relevant, unless they, too, are located in residential areas in narrow valleys. As for the impact on public health in the 11 areas, a full assessment of that might take a generation and it won’t be good.

Looking to the economic future here, is this the way to encourage inward investment by non-polluting firms – enterprises that might actually bring real jobs and prosperity to the region? Is this the Northern Powerhouse we wish to belong to?

Clearly, a higher authority needs to look behind Bradford Council’s bland assertion that the benefits of the scheme outweigh the ‘identified harm’. This is not a matter of weights and measures. How can you weigh threats to human health against so-called benefits? There are no safe levels of dioxins in the environment.

Has Bradford MDC done anything to look for ‘identified harm’ elsewhere? According to Memorandum (Waste 28) on the parliamentary website, plenty exists.

The positive-sounding term ‘energy from waste’ is a planners’ fig leaf, given the dangerous location of the incinerator in a valley bottom. The Secretary of State for Local Government still has the power to overturn the decision. You can write and make your views known to him or to your MP.

David Bateman, Hospital Road, Riddlesden