Protest group Stop the South London Incinerator brought its case against the London borough of Sutton council – over its decision to grant the Beddington Energy Recovery Facility planning permission in March 2014.
The planned 275,000 tonnes-per-year capacity facility will be built on Viridor’s existing landfill site and is expected to receive household residual waste from across four south London boroughs when it is completed in 2017 (see letsrecycle.com story).
But the development also falls within a Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) area, which has similar planning requirements to green belt land.
Shasha Khan, group founder and prospective Green Party candidate for North Croydon, originally contested the decision in an application for judicial review to the High Court in June 2014 – on the grounds that the council had applied the wrong planning policy to Viridor’s proposals (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, Mr Khan took the case to the Court of Appeal after the High Court rejected the judicial review bid in November, claiming that the facility was of potential strategic importance to London.
Ruling
Now the appeals court has also ruled against the written application, pending an oral hearing due to take place later next month.
Mr Khan had argued that the South London Waste Partnership did not provide site specific policy guidance that the “Beddington site will no longer be suitable for waste treatment after 2023 as it will be incorporated into the Wandle Valley Regional Park”.
Mr Khan also claimed that there was “insufficient information” as to the route of pipelines to be constructed as part of Viridor’s proposals to provide central heat and power (CHP) from the facility to the local area.
Examining the case, Lord Justice Sullivan stated that the grounds of appeal “do not have a real prospect of success”.
In his grounds for refusal, he argued that the Planning Officer’s report had clearly considered the impact of permitting the EfW facility, and that he was “reasonably certain” CHP will be provided even though the precise routes of the necessary pipelines have not yet been provided.
Hearing
Commenting on the decision, Mr Khan told letsrecycle.com the group was disappointed but “confident” that it would have more success at the upcoming oral hearing.
He said: “Our legal team intends to pursue this with an oral hearing and it is not uncommon that applications initially refused do get permission at that stage. It’s absolutely the wrong solution in the wrong place and there are better options available to the four councils. It’s a crazy thing to be able to build an incinerator in such an urban area.”
A spokesman for Viridor said: “Viridor is aware of the recent decision by the Court of Appeals to reject the application filed by Mr Sasha Khan’s legal team – a decision that is welcomed.
“Viridor is also aware that Mr Khan’s legal team has filed a request for the case to be heard in court and therefore Viridor is currently not in a position to make further comments on these matters.”
Meanwhile, Viridor has also responded to claims that confidential documents published on the Kingston council website last month showed that the company is seeking amendments to the Beddington facility’s opening hours.
The company added: “The published report included information regarding Viridor’s options on how to proceed with the project, should the cost of meeting restrictions placed by planning permissions become prohibitive.
“’Unsatisfactory planning’ is a contractual mechanism enabling Viridor to review restrictions imposed by the planning conditions. Viridor has submitted the details required by the planning conditions to London Borough of Sutton and these have recently been substantially approved. Viridor is not seeking amendments to opening hours or noise restrictions.”
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