Lung Health Charity Calls For Pause On Stoke’s £1.1bn Incinerator Plan

A Staffordshire lung health group has issued an urgent warning over a proposed £1.1 billion waste incinerator expansion, warning it will turn Stoke-on-Trent into a "regional dumping ground" for the next 40 years.

With the public consultation closing this Friday, 26th June at 5:00pm, Breathe Easy North Staffordshire (BENS) is demanding a strategic pause. They want an independent review of zero-emission alternatives before future generations are locked into decades of unnecessary air pollution.

The current plan for "Hanford 2.0" aims to solve the city's empty district heating pipes by burning rubbish. However, because Stoke does not produce enough waste to fill the massive plant, up to 76% of the rubbish will be trucked in from across the wider West Midlands, severely congesting the A50 and A500 corridors.

Victor Cholij, Chairperson of Breathe Easy North Staffordshire, said:

"Stoke-on-Trent already suffers from some of the highest rates of asthma and respiratory illness in the UK. Forcing local people to breathe the emissions and diesel truck fumes of other boroughs’ imported trash is a matter of environmental injustice.

"This is a 40-year health lock-in. We do not have to choose between keeping our heating pipes empty and harming the lungs of our children. Modern, non-polluting solutions like mine water geothermal energy and high-tech robotic sorting can separate waste from heat entirely. The council needs to look forward, not backward."

BENS is not calling for waste to go to landfill. Instead, they are urging the council to pause the tender process until a joint optimisation strategy can be studied with Staffordshire County Council, especially taking into account the 2028 local government reorganisation.

The group has launched a public petition and published detailed briefing papers outlining major financial, environmental, and health risks.