The Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority and its contractor Mersey Waste Holdings are developing the 3.5 hectare site at Bidston in the Wirral to include a 30,000 tonne per year MRF, open windrow and in-vessel composting facilities.
The facilities are to serve the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral's new alternate weekly kerbside collection service. A 200,000 tonne per year waste transfer station, household waste recycling centre and an education centre are also planned for the Bidston site, and the Authority said the site as a whole should see about 60,000 tonnes of material diverted from landfill each year.
 Mersey Waste operations director Stuart Elwin (left) with steeplejack Neil Astill with Bidston chimney, soon to be demolished |
The original Bidston Incineration Plant, with its 76-metre chimney, was commissioned and became operational in 1977. It was only in service until the early 1980s, when it was shut down and became derelict.
Bidston will now form part of a larger development of an integrated waste management facility, including and the restoration of a former landfill site to public use.
Mersey Waste Holdings managing director Rob Allan said: “This project has been a long time in the planning. Residents and groups have been anxious to see the demolition of the chimney and incinerator for many years.
“Those wishes will shortly be a reality and working in partnership with MWDA and Wirral Council, the new facilities will be developed to the benefit of everyone,” he added.
MWDA’s contractors will recover and reuse as much of the materials produced by the site’s demolition as possible.
The Bidston project has been funded through a 5 million grant from Defra and forms part of Merseyside’s strategy to reach a recycling rate of 25% by 2007. MWDA also intends to develop an in-vessel composting facility at Gilmoss in Liverpool with a capacity for 15,600 tonnes a year.
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