Portland Port has released its spring newsletter with the headline ‘keeping community at heart’.
However, with the controversial waste incinerator project set to be built at the port. the Dorset Echo commented that “this is not how the local community feels”.
Councillor Clare Sutton (Rodwell & Wyke, Dorset Council), was quoted by the Echo: “For Portland Port to claim in its newsletter that it has our ‘community at heart’ is not just insensitive and ill-judged; it is downright insulting.
‘Would that be the community which has come out in force to oppose the waste incinerator at every step of the way for over five years?
“Talking to residents across Wyke and Rodwell recently there is widespread anger towards the port and I don’t get the feeling this newsletter is going to change that.”
The Echo continued: “Valerie Graves, who is a trustee of Castle Cove beach, was also left ‘angered’ and even sent the newsletter back to the port via post.
“She said: ‘Sending Port Talk out to people was ill thought through and there is nothing on the incinerator – it’s the main topic.
“‘I thought it was hypocritical and they are not thinking about their corporate social responsibility – I wasn’t upset I was angry – I think it is an outrageous and thoughtless thing to do.
“When asked if including an update on the waste incinerator would have changed her feelings, Valerie said it would have been ‘more transparent’ and she would have had ‘more respect’ for the publication and the port.”
[Read full Dorset Echo article…]
Photo (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0): WSDOT