Who are RAP

RAP (Residents Against the Plant)

Is a non-political protest group formed by Byley and Cranage residents in 1999, to oppose the building of Scottish Power's Byley Gas Plant. RAP represents thousands of local people, and is organised into an action group of about 60 volunteers, led by an Executive Committee.

RAP is official representative of the following local councils, to oppose the gas plant:

Allostock,
Brereton,
Byley,
Cranage,
Goostrey,
Holmes Chapel,
Knutsford,
Lower Withington,
Middlewich,
Sandbach,
Somerford,
Sproston,
Sweatenham.

RAP is fighting for everyone, not just Byley, not just Cheshire - because if Scottish Power can build their gas plant deep in rural England, and in contempt of local opposition, and the democratically agreed local plan,
then any monster, money-driven project could be planted anywhere.

RAP Executive Committee members shown:

Centre:
John Halstead, (Chairman) Chartered engineer, lived in Allostock and Cranage the past 20 years. Married with 2 sons.

At the back, left to right:
Dr Jamie Atherton, retired GP, worked with pleasure in the NHS for 20 years. Married with three daughters. Special interests: environmental care, a good book and a decent malt. He was sent ,as usual, to a public school where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him.

David A. Ord, BSc (Chem.), Management Consultant, has lived in Cranage for 10 years.

John Oakley, Chartered Electrical Engineeer of 30 years experience. Managing Director of an electronics company. Married with four children.

Dr John Edwards, (Press and Media Spokesman) Molecular biologist, worked 26 years for ICI Pharmaceuticals/Zeneca. Now freelance TV writer/producer. Married with one son.

THE POLLUTION RISK REMAINS

Scottish Power now say they will use electric powered compressors at the Byley Gas Plant, not gas turbine compressors.

They want you to believe this means the plant will be pollution-free. Well it won't. In the first place there will be 5 GAS FIRED BOILERS at the plant, pouring out pollution: greenhouse-gas carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides that will drop acid rain downwind of the site. Also there will be further pollution, produced at the power sites generating the power needed by the gas plant's electric compressors.

After that, don't fall for Scottish Power's second line of defence, which is to say that there will now be less pollution. They're like the vandal who says he's not going to smash all your windows - just some of them.

And remember that the only reason for this pollution is Scottish Power's profit.

Britain doesn't need the Gas Plant! Latest Information

Cheshire County Council U-Turn

Press Release says CCC to present no evidence to Inquiry on Scottish Power’s Appeal Against refusal of Gas Plant Planning Permission Those who run from the fight are shamed as cowards - especially those who run while their comrades are advancing to face the enemy.

Now Cheshire County Council, with its great resources, its massive headquarters, its professional staff and its huge annual budget, has run from the gas plant fight and left it to RAP – a small group of part-timers – to fight the giant Scottish Power, even when the Council knows the gas plant is manifestly against the County’s structure plan, and is manifestly against the will of the people of Cheshire. Consequently to say that RAP disapproves of Cheshire County Council’s U-turn decision not to fight, is an all time understatement.

We ask if this is what residents can expect in future from the Council? What is the point of planning rules or structure plans if the Council will not defend them? The decision not to fight creates a precedent: a precedent that Cheshire is an open house to any industry that wishes to rip up our countryside regardless of local opinion, the environment or safety issues.
For a fundamental matter of principle is involved here. If - as the County Council say - they do not want the gas plant, and want the Secretary of State to stop it; and yet they will not fight against it because they fear the cost; then what proposal backed by a major company can ever be refused by the County Council? It is as if Winston Churchill in 1940 said “I do not want the Germans to come, but we shall not fight them if they do, because I will not pay for the bullets.”

Therefore, RAP warmly pays tribute to the substantial number of honourable Councillors who have steadfastly backed the fight against the gas plant, and who voted to continue the fight, and to support the Development Regulatory Committee’s two refusals of planning permission, and to oppose the motion that the County Council should present no evidence at the Inquiry commencing on November 19th.
Meanwhile RAP is resolved that together with CAP (Councils Against the Plant) we shall fight on. We shall fight and we shall win, because we have a strong, well- researched case which fully represents the views of local residents and which deserves to be heard.

Finally RAP points out a sickening U-turn within the County Council’s U-turn. The Council claims that it continues to oppose the gas plant, but paragraph 13 of their press release states that the Council’s first refusal of the gas plant…
“resulted in a much improved second application and a good environmental package which the Council would continue to seek to improve.”

Note the words we have highlighted. They sounds as if the Council has given in and seeks only to mitigate the consequences of a completed gas plant. Worse still – whether intentional or not – these words are an invitation to Scottish Power to put in yet another planning application, plus advice on how to word it such that the Council could approve the gas plant in practice, while staunchly opposing it in principle.

What is going on? Is the Council facing both ways at the same time? Is it hiding behind RAP? Is it hiding behind its lawyers and auditors? Is it hoping for the Secretary of Sate to ride to the rescue on a white horse and take the problem away?
Not since Pontius Pilate washed his hands, has a public body wriggled so hard to avoid its responsibilities.

Finally, and in the name of representative democracy, RAP demands that the County Council reveal the names of those councillors who voted for the proposal to abandon the fight, and those who voted to fight on.

Elections will come in due course and the electorate has a right to know.Dr John Edwards, Press and Media Officer

Beckham & Giggs support the fight

BIG NAMES BACK RAP’S AUCTION NIGHTThe biggest names in UK sport are now right behind RAP, on a football autographed by Manchester United’s top players including David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and the rest. The football – a prized icon for any sports fan – is the latest in a growing list of tasty items still flowing in from generous donors anxious to support RAP’s cause. And that’s not the end of the Man United connection, because another and separate auction item is the use of a box at United’s ground.
Said RAP’s auction organiser George Yarwood: “It’s almost an embarrassment of riches! We’ve got the catalogue published, and everything ready and yet the offers of auction items are still flowing in, so there’s going to be plenty of excitement on the night with offers we haven’t even seen right now. It’s just amazing how kind people have been and how ready they are to help us.”
RAP Chairman John Halstead added: “It’s just one more sign that the whole community wants the gas plant dead and buried, and nobody’s believed a word of Scottish Power’s propaganda.”
Meanwhile tickets are selling fast for the auction night Friday October 18th at Goostrey Village Hall, doors open at 7.15, admission £5 which includes cheese and wine. To book in advance phone any of the following numbers

RAP LAUNCH WEBSITE www.nogasplant.co.uk

Monday March 4th was a big day for protest group RAP in their campaign to stop Scottish Power planting a chemical-industrial complex in the heart of rural Cheshire. Speaking to an audience including journalists and photographers, RAP Chairman John Halstead, said: "Through www.nogasplant.co.uk RAP will reach a vastly wider audience than ever before to make our reasoned case against Scottish Power's Gas Plant II - demolishing some of their nonsensical claims, such as the statement that Britain needs the plant. Britain doesn't need it. Only Scottish Power needs it - to make money for Scottish Power." John Halstead went on to advertise RAP's public meetings - open to all - at 6.30 pm Goostrey Village Hall on Friday March 15th, and 6 pm Cranage Conference Centre, Saturday March 16th.

Then, dropping a massive bombshell on Scottish Power's technical case, RAP asked "Where's the Salt?", a profound safety question about Scottish Power's plans, which either ignore or are ignorant of best practise set by British Gas Storage - the only UK body with expertise in this area, and who have long since considered and rejected Cheshire as a fit site for underground gas storage. This is because, for underground gas storage in salt strata, British Gas Storage require 100 metres of solid salt around and beneath each gas cavity, and then 4.5 cavity diameters between each cavity. But the cavities Planned by Scottish Power are much closer than this, and worse still, there'd be nothing like 100 metres of salt beneath the cavities: perhaps only a few metres. So nobody - but nobody - knows if Scottish Power's gas cavities will be safe, because if there isn't enough salt to secure the cavities, we're into the unknown, with completely unpredictable reactions from unknown strata, deep down below. Said RAP Press Spokesman Dr John Edwards: "This is frightening. If amateurs like us can work this out, then why can't Scottish Power? It looks like they haven't done their homework. And remember, it's not RAP that demands 100 metres of salt around gas cavities - it's standards published by British Gas Storage. So we're asking Scottish Power: where's the salt?"

Spineless Cheshire County Council

Cheshire County Council have stunned and disappointed the people of Cheshire by running away from the fight against Scottish Power. The Council have decided to present no evidence to the inquiry starting November 19th, because they believe this course of action will avoid their having to pay the cost of fighting the inquiry.

RAP is contemptuous of this spineless action and will fight on - together with CAP (Councils Against the Plant), and the good news is that we are going to win, because our case is strong and we have a first class barrister (Mr William Upton QC) to present it for us. So it's thank you and goodnight Cheshire County Council - when it came to the crunch you were as much use as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking party.

Gas plant newsletter

• Early September 2002:

RAP has launched a COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER. a 4-page multi-colour, high-quality release which gives the facts in a nutshell,: the danger presented by the Gas Plant, the USA Hutchinson disaster that hit a similar Gas Plant causing deaths and injuries, how to dump ManWeb (Scottish Power's subsidiary who no longer deserve your custom) and much else. 25,000 copies of the Newsletter to go through letterboxes all over our County, to spread the news.

And there will be a RAP fund-raising "AUCTION NIGHT" and wine and cheese party, at Goostrey Village Hall on Friday October 18th. Should be fun, with plenty of big items open for auction.