The Northern Irish environment minister Edwin Poots has thrown out plans put forward by the Veridis Energy consortium for a £40 million energy-from-waste incinerator near Belfast.
The proposals for the large-scale plant to the North West of the city had been put forward by a consortium-led by skip-hire firm Irish Recycling Services, which submitted an application to the Planning Service – a dedicated body within the DOE – in July 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Mr Poots had written to Assembly Members earlier this month (July 7) explaining his position on the planning proposal – stating his intent to support the Planning Service's recommendation to refuse the consortium's application.
A spokesman for the DOE today told letsrecycle.com: “The Planning Service can confirm that the Minister has agreed with the recommendation to refuse planning permission for a proposed energy from waste power plant involving thermal processing of waste.”
The spokesman said that the application had been refused “on a number of grounds”, which included: being contrary to regional policy; out of character with the area; unacceptable visual impact in an Area of Scenic Value; and the proposal would also breach protected airspace as defined by the Civil Aviation Authority, and if permitted would prejudice aircraft safety.
Veridis, who were made verbally aware of the decision earlier this week (July 20), were unavailable for comment. When submitting the proposal, IRL had said it was hopeful to have the plant operational by late 2011 or early 2012 and use the facility to serve the waste needs of Belfast.
EfW
Development of energy-from-waste capacity in the vicinity of Belfast has proven a contentious issue in recent years – with the 11 council partnership arc21 being refused permission for a 17 acre site at North Foreshore in June 2009 to develop a plant (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, the DOE spokesman stressed that the environment minister did acknowledge that the technology has a role to play in the Northern Irish waste infrastructure and that this had also been recognised within the country's waste strategy.
He said: “The Northern Irish waste strategy acknowledges energy-from-waste as an integral element of Northern Ireland's waste strategy and stresses that while the environment minister, Edwin Poots, is committed to achieving higher rates of recycling, he has also acknowledged the need for energy-from-waste to enable Northern Ireland to comply with landfill diversion targets.”
The decision to refuse permission comes one week after the environment minister defended Northern Ireland's current rate of recycling, which has only seen a slight increase between 2008/09 and 2009/10 according to provisional figures (see letsrecycle.com story).
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