Hatfield Against Incineration and the New Barnfield Action Fund were today surprised to be told, via an election leaflet, that the hated incinerator had been stopped. Unfortunately, it would appear this claim is untrue.

Cllr Pile’s election leaflet claimed that he’d ‘stopped the incinerator in its tracks’, whereas the plans are simply on hold until the planning inquiry in September.

HAI urge all residents to ignore the claim and continue to support HAI and the NBAF, especially financially, to stop the incinerator.

Paul Zukowskyj, HAI committee member and NBAF secretary, commented: “The claim is misleading and damaging, because residents may believe the incinerator plan has been scrapped and not send us their donations. Nothing could be further from the truth, we still need to fight this barmy plan and we need residents help to do it.

“I’ve today asked Cllr Pile to withdraw the leaflet and publicly retract the statement that the incinerator has been stopped. I have made it clear that I believe he has unnecessarily damaged a cross-party community campaign to gain personal electoral advantage, and from a personal perspective I must say I’m very disappointed in him and his agent as they apparently believe misleading residents in this cynical way is justified to win an election campaign.”