KYIV. Dec 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Private joint-stock company Fanplit (Kyiv), a producer of plywood and wood chipboard, seeks to challenge the court ruling to arrest equipment of the enterprise and the closure of its workshop over emissions under a petition of Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) in Kyiv. The company believes that the events, including protests of residents of the Comfort Town residential complex, organized to close the enterprise are linked to the use of the land parcel where the workshop is located for construction.

"Under a petition of Prosecutor General's Office on December 9 the court halted the plywood workshop, leaving 250 employees without wages and jobs before the New Year. The enterprise has been operating for 108 years. Around 500 people work there. The company produces goods worth some UAH 200 million, and the products are exported to 30 countries," Fanplit Director General Palladiy Horbatiuk said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

He said that according to the court ruling, information that the Fanplit plant violates environment protection legislation was taken from online and media reports.

He said that in the past months Comfort Town residents held protest rallies. They were complaining of noise and air pollution. The ecological inspectorate and Ukraine's State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Rights Protection started frequent inspections.

"We several times proposed them [the residents] to work out joint steps to remove the problems. Today the company is working on emission reduction, but it looks like they are not interested in it," the top manager said.

Deputy Head of the committee for safety of doing business at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine Valeriy Buniak said that the problem is not new: construction in the industrial zone and then complaints of residents over air pollution.

"The Comfort Town complex has been built in the place where one cannot build, in particular, in the sanitary zone of Fanplit. It is 300 meters. Kyiv has problems with the general plan and these situations appear. They should be settled in a civilized way, with the attraction of environmental specialists or sanitation centers, but without interference of PGO. Here PGO arrived and closed the workshop, while there are no claims to it… Under the previous authorities it was called "pressure on business," he said.

According to a ruling of Dniprovsky district court in Kyiv issued on December 9, the court banned operation of the heat generator burning wood chips and equipment to burn wood chip joined to the thermal oil unit, as Fanplit consumes wood chips without a permit and its emission violate environment protection law.

Press conference participants said that Fanplit really planned to switch from gas consumption to wood chip burning to save energy. They conducted tests to receive the relevant permits, while PGO wrote in its petition that the company is already burning chips.

"Why no one raises the issue that the land parcel planned for construction, where earlier Vtorchormet plant was located, is polluted with cesium? And they want to close the enterprise that is taking measures to reduce emission, despite the difficult financial state. Of course, there are plans to expand construction in the industrial zone. There are utility networks there. There is no need to install them, but the plant must be destroyed for this purpose," lawyer Viktor Kolbantsev said.

Along with the submission of a counterclaim, employees of the company plan to hold rallies.

"We will file a claim about the crime of constructors. They are building in the sanitary zone. We will file appeals about the unlawful construction on the place where the aluminum plant and other plants are located in this industrial zone where one cannot build [houses]. We will hold rallies near PGO and Kyiv City Administration. It they do not hear us, we will hold rallies near the presidential administration," Horbatiuk said.

He said that residents of Comfort Town are to answer too, as they bought apartments close to the industrial enterprise and did not ask about the environment situation in the area.