Residents of Ivybridge, we are gathered here today to protest the building of an incinerator at Lee Mill just 2 miles from here. This incinerator would burn 275,000 tonnes of waste every year and would burn all day every day for at least the next 25 years.

At least, it would burn that much waste if we had that much waste, but even now we don’t. With recycling rates increasing and packaging decreasing, South Devon would not have enough waste to feed this incinerator, so waste would have to be shipped in from elsewhere.

This is what has already happened in Hampshire. They did not have enough waste for their incinerator, so their council has now had to reverse planning conditions and to allow waste to be shipped in from Dorset, West Sussex and even further afield.

And it is because of this same reason of increased recycling and decreasing packaging that  Dorset County Council has just withdrawn its bid for nearly £80 million in government PFI funding for its energy from waste plant.

This proposed incinerator makes no sense from which ever way you look at it. It would present an undisputed health risk, it would pose a serious environmental hazard, it would undermine all our recycling efforts and it would put a drain on council tax for years to come.

Rubbish is the resource of the future, we should not be burning it away. Investment in recycling would increase jobs and boost our economy.

This incinerator will put a drain on our economy, but not only that, it will pump out thousands of tonnes of C02 into our atmosphere every year. Viridor have not yet told us how much C02 it will be producing, so how can it possibly make the claim that its energy from waste plant is green technology? Do you not know that if C02 emissions are not reduced within the next 10 years we could be heading for a global catastrophe? As we look to the future, reducing C02 emissions will be one of the biggest challenges that our councils will have to face.

It is because of the C02 and financial risks that Bedford Borough Council have just voted to withdraw from a scheme to build an incinerator to get rid of their waste.

One of their local politicians said: "The council's own waste strategy document published in 2006 says the 'best practicable environmental option' should be sought for waste disposal."

He said "Incineration is quite simply the wrong option environmentally. The climate change impact of a mass burn incinerator is far greater than many other technologies, including mechanical and biological treatment. Studies differ on how much more environmentally damaging an 'energy from waste' incinerator plant is but no-one, including Defra, disputes that the technology is distinctly inferior on these grounds to other technologies."

We moved to this town for clean air, because we love the countryside, because we have children and Ivybridge provides a healthy and safe environment in which they may grow. But our councillors are planning on turning Ivybridge into the toxic dump of the South West.

But let me tell you, all those people that say we are wasting our time, this is not a done deal.

It is our duty to protect this beautiful place and because hundreds of residents are uniting against and acting on their conviction, that this solution is not the right one for our future, we have made this an undone deal.