Anti-incinerator group takes campaign to Paris

A group campaigning against a proposed multi-million pound incinerator and power plant to be built at Lough Neagh have taken their objections to Paris.

A CALNI delegation travelled to Europe's largest food trade exhibition to picket Marfrig, one of the companies behind the controversial plan.

The Brazilian company, which owns Moy Park and O'Kane Poultry, has said the plant would power 25,000 homes.

CALNI claims planning procedures have not been properly followed.

Ray Clarke, chairman of Communities Against the Lough Neagh Incinerator (CALNI), said the picket had received "a great deal of supportive comments" at the exhibition.

"We also took our protest around Paris and found that people were appalled at the very idea of an incinerator being proposed for such an important water source," he said.

"Northern Ireland rightly has an enviable reputation for air purity and food quality. We want to support the agri-food industry but we cannot allow the rhetoric of Moy Park go unchallenged."

The group behind the proposal, Rose Energy is a consortium of Moy Park, O'Kane Poultry and Glenfarm Holdings Limited.

The incinerator, which will be built near Glenavy, will generate power by burning chicken waste and bone meal.

Environment minister Edwin Poots has said the plant represents the kind of investment needed in Northern Ireland.