Earlier this year, consortium Cory Wheelabrator’s plan for a 268,000 tonnes per year capacity EfW facility at the Saddlebrow site was scrapped by the council, leaving the authority with no long-term solution for dealing with the council’s waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
As a result, the council was recommended to adopt 19 general policies regarding the future of Norfolk’s waste arrangements by its environment, development and transport committee last month, although the committee at the time chose not to rule out the possibility that it may develop residual waste incineration capacity in the county in future (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, at a meeting of the full council this week (December 15), Norfolk councillors agreed by 64-0 votes, with 12 abstentions, that the Saddlebrow site could not be sold by the council in future to any developers planning to build a waste incinerator. They agreed that any future waste development at the site must process waste further up the hierarchy than incineration.
This appears to signal the end of waste incineration as a development option in the county, and councillor Toby Coke – chairman of the environment committee – said he hoped the votes of the council would reassure residents that the council would not be going back to incineration in the future.
He commented that the vote sent a “clear message on incineration” as there was “political will across all parties to bury the incinerator issue once and for all”.
Sale
Councillors had considered the option of selling the Saddlebow site altogether at the meeting this week, but voted 66-6 in favour of retaining the site on the grounds that it might be needed in future for waste disposal.
As such, the council’s policy and resources committee will be asked to retain the Saddlebrow site until it is surplus to requirements, but will be asked not sell to anyone planning to build an incinerator.
The agreed policy states incineration of waste or fuel from waste is accepted outside Norfolk, although any such arrangements should be reviewed on an annual basis.
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Current arrangement
Currently, 40,000 tonnes per year of Norfolk’s residual waste is sent for processing at SITA UK’s Great Blakenham EfW plant under a two-year agreement with Suffolk county council (see letsrecycle.com story).
It is expected that until 2020, Norfolk will utilise capacity in existing treatment facilities outside the county or landfill sites in Norfolk. Or, documents state, the council could secure services to generate fuel from waste for use in facilities outside Norfolk.
A waste conference is to be held in Norfolk early next year to focus on processes, technologies and solutions to provide a permanent solution for the problem of what to do with Norfolk’s left-over waste, the council said.
Commenting on the council’s decision this week, councillor Coke said: “It would be completely irresponsible of us to get rid of the Saddlebow site when we may well need it for ourselves as we look to the future.
“But having spent more than £33 million ending the contract with Cory Wheelabrator, it’s crystal clear there is a political will across all parties to bury the incinerator issue once and for all. I hope the clear message on incineration, that councillors from all sides of the chamber agreed, will reassure people in West Norfolk and, indeed, the county as a whole, that we can now move forward together from here and put this very divisive issue behind us.”
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