Kent county council has granted planning approval to Countrystyle Recycling to develop a large-scale materials recycling facility and an anaerobic digestion plant near Folkestone.
The local authoritys planning applications committee voted in favour of the Kent-based organics recycling firms plans for the site of the former Otterpool Quarry in Sellindge.
The two plants would handle commercial and industrial waste, with the anaerobic digestion (AD) plant possessing a capacity of 20,000 tonnes-a-year and the materials recycling facility designed to sort 75,000 tonnes of recyclable material per annum.
According to planning documents, the industrial and commercial waste would be derived from businesses in the East Kent area, such as Ashford, Dover and Shepway.
At present, Countrystyle primarily treats organic waste through in-vessel and open-windrow composting. It is also pursuing development of a 46,000 tonne-a-year capacity AD plant at Swanley, which was being proposed by TJ Composting before the firm was purchased by Countrystyle in April 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Approval
Approval for the plant was granted following a three hour debate on the proposal earlier this month (March 17), in which councillors on Kents planning applications committee voted 14 in favour. Only three opposed the project.
However, the committee has imposed conditions on Countrystyle over the development, covering issues such as lorry access, ground contamination, noise controls and dust and smell controls.
Cllr Richard King, chairman of Kents planning applications committee, said: The committee was totally sympathetic to the concerns of the local residents and, indeed, congratulated them on the case they put. But in pure planning terms there were no significant or major planning reasons why this should be refused.
Managed properly, this site will not cause an environmental problem for people locally. Much of the concern expressed was about how it is to be managed. We have placed a lot of conditions aimed at making sure it is managed properly.
Opposition
Environmental consultancy SLR Consulting, which spoke on behalf of Countrystyle at the committee meeting, acknowledged that the proposal had been subject to considerable local opposition.
In total, 600 residents in the Sellindge area had held a protest march in opposition to the application and there were also complaints from the Sellindge Residents Association that it had been kept in the dark about the proposal.
Nigel Cronin, technical director at SLR Consulting, said: We were keen to emphasise that the new plant would ensure locally generated waste would no longer need to be transported 30 miles away to be landfilled and that the scheme is in accordance with national, regional and Kent county council local policies for the location of waste management facilities.
A spokeswoman for Countrystyle told letsrecycle.com that it had not yet established a construction timetable and was unable to pinpoint when the plant would become fully operational. The company would also not reveal the costs involved.
Countrystyle must now satisfy the Environment Agency that concerns raised by residents over traffic, odour, noise, pollution and contaminated surface water will be taken into account and met before an environmental permit is issued.
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