Essex county council has granted planning permission to the Urbaser Balfour Beatty (UBB) consortium to build a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility in Basildon, it was confirmed today (February 7).
London infrastructure firm Balfour Beatty will begin construction on the Courtauld Road facility in Spring 2013, while Cheltenham-based waste management company Urbaser will operate the facility.
The council granted initial planning permission for the facility in December 2012, subject to several conditions. Today, however, a UBB spokeswoman confirmed that those conditions have now been met.
Construction of the facility is expected to take 16 months and the completed facility will include a visitor and education centre. It will have the capacity to deal with 450,000 tonnes of municipal waste per year and will process household waste from across Essex and Southend.
Items that can be recycled from the waste stream will be recovered at the facility, while any remaining waste sent to landfill will also be treated to prevent greenhouse gases such as methane being released to the atmosphere, UBB said.
A spokeswoman for UBB said the facility will provide a number of construction jobs while the completed facility will also create 85 full-time jobs and several apprenticeships for people in the local area.
The facilitys pre-construction works will include the erection of cabins and facilities for the workers, including canteens, offices and parking. The consortium said it was planning the construction programme to minimise disruption to normal day-to-day activities in the local area.
Essex Waste Partnership
The MBT facility is being developed as part of a 25-year waste treatment contract worth around 800 million over the course of its lifetime which was awarded to Urbaser Balfour Beatty by the Essex Waste Partnership in June 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Essex Waste Partnership, which was granted 100.9 million of government PFI credits for the facility, is made up of Essex county council and its 12 district and borough councils, as well as the unitary authority of Southend-on-Sea borough council.
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Urbaser Balfour Beatty project director, Richard Lancaster, said: We are thrilled to have been given Planning approval to start works on the site. Preparations have now begun and construction will start in the spring. This is an important project for Essex and Southend and will bring both economic and environmental benefits to the area.
He added: We would like to thank all of the local residents who took part in the pre-planning consultation. We are continuing to engage with the local community through a community liaison group which will meet regularly throughout the construction phase and beyond.
An Essex county council spokesman said: Planning permission was granted to UBB for the residual waste treatment facility at Courtauld Road. UBB have issued a press release as they wished to inform local residents that they will be starting work at the site shortly.
The Essex Waste Partnership has a target to recycle and compost a minimum of 60% of household waste by 2020.
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