The plant would replace plans put forward around five years ago for the development of a 380,000 tonnes per year capacity plant at New Barnfield, for which planning permission was overturned in summer 2015, following a drawn-out political battle over the development of the facility.
Following that decision, Veolia has now identified a site at Rye House, Hoddesdon, to develop a plant to treat Hertfordshire’s residual waste.
Veolia had formally put forward proposals to develop a 320,000 tonnes-per-year CHP enabled SRF power plant at an industrial site in the town, supplied by rail, as part of its bid for the North London Waste Authority procurement in 2011.
However, these plans were subsequently scrapped after Veolia withdrew from the procurement process for the North London altogether in December 2012.
The site for the earlier proposed EfW plant in Hoddesdon was located close to Scottish Power’s Rye House Power Station on the edge of an industrial estate, 1.5km to the east of Hoddesdon town centre.
Hertfordshire
Veolia’s proposal to resurrect its plan for a plant in Hoddesdon follows Hertfordshire council’s request to Veolia to submit an alternative treatment solution for its consideration.
A decision on whether or not to progress the proposal rests with the county council, which is due to consider the plan at a meeting in early March.
Keith McGurk, Veolia’s regional director in the East, said: “The Energy Recovery Facility is the best economic and environmental solution for treating residual waste in Hertfordshire, whilst allowing the waste collection and disposal authorities to maximise initiatives for waste recycling and composting. We look forward to working closely with Hertfordshire county council and their residents.”
Richard Thake, cabinet member for Community Safety & Waste Management at Hertfordshire county council, added: “Since receiving Veolia’s Revised Project Plan we have been carefully examining all of the detail and will soon have completed a full evaluation to see if it provides a viable and value for money solution to dealing with Hertfordshire’s local authority collected waste.
“A report will be presented to the Community Safety and Waste Management Cabinet Panel on 4 March. The Panel will aim to make a recommendation to Cabinet to either accept or reject the proposal. A final decision will be made by Cabinet on 14 March 2016.
“In the meantime we have interim waste arrangements in place and we have the option to extend these if needed up to the end of March 2021.”
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