‘BLACK bag rubbish’ will NOT be burned in Milford Haven, if permission to build a renewable energy plant is given the go-ahead, locals have been told.

On Tuesday, residents and campaigners had the chance to raise concerns about Egnedol’s ambitious plans to rejuvenate the former RNAD and Gulf oil refinery sites near Blackbridge.

Planning inspector Clive Nield was joined by around 25 people at the town hall, all keen to have their say before he makes his recommendation to the Welsh Government.

Among the concerns were the fuel sources to be used, pollution, access to the site, and whether Egnedol would be able to keep its promise of creating more than 500 jobs.

The proposed facility will receive biomass – in the form of wood chippings - by ship via the site’s jetty, therefore avoiding an increase in road traffic.

As yet, no work to repair the jetty has taken place, but Egnedol director Steve Whitehouse said the jetty was integral to the project, and was happy to make this a condition of planning.

Access to the site is set to be via an improved lane at Waterston, but residents from Castle Hall were worried this would still mean extra traffic to and from the site during the building phase.

Mark Davies said the road was well-used by schoolchildren and parents with pushchairs, but did not have a footpath.

“It’s extremely dangerous,” he said.

Environmental campaigners took issue with the project’s sustainability - both in terms of the wood (biomass) needed to fuel the plant, and the hundreds of ancillary jobs promised.

A spokesman for Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth and Biofuel Watch said many of the technologies Egnedol proposed to use were “unproven”, with no similar projects currently running anywhere in the world.

Dr Rebecca Cadbury said the plans were “fundamentally flawed”, and that a waste pyrolysis and gasification unit posed a health and safety risk, both because of its nature, and its proximity to nearby potential hazards, such as LNG facilities.

Two other meetings to discuss the impact on the environment and traffic were due to be held at the Cleddau Bridge Hotel on Wednesday and Thursday (Today).

Mr Nield will assess the information gathered from these three meetings, before making a recommendation to the Welsh Government on whether the plans should be approved.