IT should come as no surprise that the Environment Agency is not at all concerned at the prospect of an industrial waste incinerator in Keighley – Incinerator fight dealt major blow (Keighley News, April 6).

If it is not sufficiently bothered to do anything very much about the appalling air quality in London, why on earth should it worry about the far-off reaches of the northern poor house?

The operating company may have some doubts about the fumes, however, since it is planning on such a tall chimney to carry the smoke well away from its staff on the ground.

Pity that tall as it is, it doesn’t appear tall enough to get above the temperature inversion that is frequently present in the Aire Valley.

The green argument appears to be largely bogus. Trucking low-grade fuel over long distances is likely to take at least as much energy as will eventually be turned into electricity. Burning that closer to its source would be a much better bet, since it will produce no more CO2 regardless of where it is burnt and there will be a saving on diesel, so less CO2 is produced overall.

Bringing the waste in from the north would mean adding to the congestion, which the proposed widening of Hard Ings Road will do little to alleviate. Bringing the waste in from the south would mean getting through the numerous bottlenecks between the M606 and the start of the Bingley by-pass. Bringing in waste through the gridlocked streets of Keighley does not even bear thinking about. The gasworks at least had a railway siding to bring its coal in.

Last, but perhaps not least, is that enormous eyesore Bradford is inflicting on Keighley.

Would the planners have allowed such a blot on the landscape on a brownfield site within the sacred boundaries of the City of Bradford? Of course not, so why inflict such a monstrosity on Keighley?

Back in the 1960s, avant-garde architects took their inspiration from the massive concrete structures of Germany’s Second World War Atlantic Wall, but what on earth is the inspiration for the truly hideous building that will overshadow the gasometers? And why does it have to be so tall as well as so ugly? The site is big enough for a much lower structure.

ROGER CHAPMAN Keighley