Run by Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (NEWS) – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norfolk County Council – the plant at Costessey started operating last month. It uses state-of-the-art equipment to sort recyclables from six of the seven local authorities in Norfolk.
NEWS submitted its application to the local planning authority earlier this year for the plant to run throughout the night. The 6 million facility currently operates on a two eight-hour shift basis from 6am-2pm and 2pm10pm and is looking to add an extra 10pm-6am shift in order to run to full capacity.
“If we worked 24 hours, five days a week we could take 90,000 tonnes of material,” said manager of the facility Steve Jenkins. “At the moment we are taking around 40,000 tonnes and there is the capacity for more.”
The current operating license for the 5,000 sq m plant allows the delivery of materials between the hours of 6am-10.30pm. The new application does not request a change to these hours, and does not ask for work to be allowed to happen outside of the operation during the night, but requests that work is allowed to continue through the night inside the facility.
“We don't expect there to be any problems with getting this licence,” said Mr Jenkins,. “We are satisfied that we meet the criteria and we are fully supported by the local parish council.”
Originally the parish council recommended the application be refused but representatives have since visited the site and the recommendation has been withdrawn.
“Once we saw that there would be no movement of lorries and suchlike overnight, we withdrew recommendation for refusal because we are very pleased with the facility and believe it's important,” said Rachel Jackson of Costessey Parish Coucil.
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