News round-up

Pickles calls in Peel EfW application

Secretary of State for Communities Eric Pickles has stepped in over a decision to grant planning permission for a gasification facility in Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire.

Peel Environmental’s application to develop a £70 million energy centre – which would also include a materials recycling facility (MRF) – was given the green light by Nottinghamshire county council last month (see letsrecycle.com story).

Developed in conjunction with energy-from-waste specialist Waste2Tricity, the gasification facility would handle around 120,000 tonnes of household and commercial residual waste per year.

But Mr Pickles has now exercised powers to postpone the decision while he looks into the development, which has proved controversial with some residents and anti-incineration groups in the area.

‘Disappointed’

Richard Barker, development manager at Peel Environmental said: “We’re digesting the news but naturally we are disappointed with the decision. We believe this is a considered project at an appropriate site and we welcomed the decision by Nottinghamshire County councillors to support the application in November.

“This project would deliver significant investment as well as waste and energy infrastructure at a time when Nottinghamshire faces dwindling space for landfill.”

Councillor John Wilkinson, chairman of the planning and licensing committee at Nottinghamshire county council, added he was ‘surprised at the decision’.

He said: “The national planning guidance we applied to the decision – the government’s own requirements on matters to consider for applications of this type – couldn’t have been more up-to-date, having only been published five days prior to our meeting.”

Manchester fire crews extinguish Viridor blaze

A blaze that erupted at Viridor’s Resource Recovery Centre near Stockport yesterday (December 22) is now extinguished, Manchester Fire & Rescue Service has confirmed.

Firefighters were called to the incident at the Bredbury plant at 11.12am, which involved around 40 tonnes of household waste within a waste transfer building.

Crews used six appliances including engines to bring the fire under control, extinguishing the flames at approximately 4.50pm yesterday afternoon.

All other facilities at the site that are not directly affected by the fire have reopened and are accepting waste. Viridor is working with police to establish how the fire started.

Control

A spokesperson for Viridor said: “Fire appliances on site quickly brought the fire under control and the incident posed no off-site risk to human health or the local environment.  The site regulator, the Environment Agency has also been informed.

“The other facilities on site have not been directly affected by the fire and they have reopened and are accepting waste. Viridor will assist the fire service and police in a full investigation.”

The Bredbury recovery facility is one of 42 constructed and upgraded across Greater Manchester, and is operated as part of a 25-year recycling and waste management contract between consortium Viridor Laing and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.

Stoke-on-Trent rejects weekly waste collections

Stoke-on-Trent council has ruled out reinstating weekly refuse collections, despite being the only local authority to fully sign up to Eric Pickles’ £250 million Weekly Collection Support Scheme.

The Staffordshire-based authority secured £14.5 million under the government fund in 2012 with the condition that it would revert to weekly collections of residual waste for a minimum of five years.

The council was then initially granted almost £400,000 to launch a feasibility study into reinstating the collections, with DCLG setting a deadline of December 19 2014 for it to draw conclusions.

However, the council decided to scrap the idea due partly to four years of ‘massive budget cuts’ – but also in order to comply with new waste regulations that its collection methods should be ‘technically, environmentally and economically practicable’ (TEEP) from January 2015.

Transformation

Councillor Andy Platt, the city council’s cabinet member for green enterprises and clean city, said a transformation in the financial and legal landscape had made the prospect of weekly waste collections untenable.

He said: “Unfortunately, the last four years have transformed not only the financial landscape in which local government must operate, but the legal framework covering waste collections. We have endured massive budget cuts over successive years and the expert opinion from our financial advisers is that the funding offered by the government would not cover the increased cost of implementing weekly collections over the course of a standard five-year contract, leaving us to make up the shortfall.

“Changes to environmental laws next year will make it impossible for the city council to return to weekly residual waste collections cost-effectively. Having explored all of the options in detail, we would prefer to look at more straightforward and sustainable ways to enhance recycling, such as by separating glass and leftover food from recycled and organic waste.”

The outcome is unlikely to discourage DCLG, which announced a £5 million recycling incentive fund solely for councils that operate weekly refuse or food waste collections earlier this year.