The plant is being built under a £500 million contract between Gloucestershire county council and a consortium of Spanish-owned Urbaser and civil engineering firm Balfour Beatty, agreed in 2013.
The contractor had originally set a deadline to have the plant operational by March 2016, although this was pushed back after opposition to the development of the site, in particular from Stroud district council, which unsuccessfully applied for a Judicial Review into the plans in summer 2015. Close to junction 12 of the M5 motorway, the site is off the Bath Road near the village of Haresfield, south west of Gloucester.
Funding
In November, councillors agreed to pump an extra £17 million into the project, due to an increase in costs associated with the delays involved in pushing through the planning proposals (see letsrecycle.com story).
At a meeting of Gloucestershire council’s Environment and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee tomorrow (18 May) councillors are due to receive an update on the progress of the project – where they will hear that construction is on course to begin in the summer of 2016.
According to documents published ahead of the meeting, the project achieved approval of planning conditions relating to the Construction Environment Management Plan. This sets out how the site will seek to limit its impact on the environment, which was agreed with the council in March.
Moving Grate
Energy from waste specialist Babcock & Wilcox Vølund is supplying the technology for the plant, which will use moving grate technology to dispose of waste from across Gloucestershire.
According to Urbaser, the site will also feature a ‘state-of-the-art’ flue gas treatment plant, high efficiency boiler, a CHP-enabled turbine and an on-site bottom ash treatment facility. Javelin Park will also feature an on-site visitors centre.
Commenting on the proposals earlier this year, councilllor Ray Theodoulou, cabinet member responsible for waste at Gloucestershire county council, said: “The facility will make an important change in the way that Gloucestershire deals with the household waste of its 600,000 residents, diverting more than 92% of our waste from landfill and helping to substantially reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in Gloucestershire.
“We aim to reach 70% recycling across the county and stop burying waste in the ground completely. As well as this new facility, Gloucestershire will also be using anaerobic digestion to treat food waste and recycle more. This all takes us a huge step closer to achieving our goal.”
Despite the project edging closer to completion local opposition to the plans still remain, with an independently-run developer Community R4C seeking to gain funding to develop its own mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility as an alternative to the Javelin Park plant. The project is seeking to secure funding through a ‘community share’ scheme.
Subscribe for free