Allerton Park EfW plant granted permit

A proposed energy-from-waste (EfW) incinerator at Allerton Park in North Yorkshire, which had 65 million of PFI funding withdrawn by Defra, has been granted an environmental permit by the Environment Agency following a public consultation.

However, it is still unclear how the project will be funded following the governments withdrawal of 65 million in waste infrastructure credits in February 2013, a decision over which North Yorkshire county council is seeking a Judicial Review (see letsrecycle.com story).

No date has been fixed for a hearing of the Judicial Review application, but the council said it was continuing to work with its contractor, AmeyCespa, to finalise the details of its long term waste management project.

Both the council and AmeyCespa declined to comment on whether replacement funding had been secured for the Allerton Park project, but AmeyCespa said that it welcomes the decision by the Environment Agency to issue the environmental permit.

A partnership of North Yorkshire county council and the City of York council had planned to use the Defra money to support a 25-year contract with Spanish-owned firm AmeyCespa to develop and operate the 1.4 billion Allerton Waste Recovery Park (see letsrecycle.com story).

As well as the EfW plant, an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility and an ash processing plant are also planned for the site, which is permitted to receive 320,000 tonnes of mostly municipal waste per year.

The Allerton Park project was one of several which had waste infrastructure credits withdrawn by the government, with Defra reasoning that it expected to have sufficient infrastructure to meet EU 2020 waste diversion targets without the facilities (see letsrecycle.com story).

Bradford and Calderdale councils have also launched a judicial review application over Defras withdrawal of 62.1 million in PFI funding for a combined heat and power (CHP) plant at Bowling Back Lane (see letsrecycle.com story).

Planning review

Additionally, North Yorkshire county council will appear at a hearing in Leeds this month (July 30-31) over an application for a Judicial Review into the councils decision to award planning permission for the incinerator, which was granted in October 2012.

Campaigners in the nearby village of Marton-cum-Grafton, who lodged the application, claim the Allerton Park incinerator locks the council into outdated technology to treat waste for the duration of the 25-year contract and does little to benefit the local Yorkshire economy.