At a special planning meeting held on Friday night, Milton Keynes councillors voted unanimously to reject the current proposal from Shanks (see letsrecycle.com story). Under pressure from a certain amount of public opinion, councillors reasoned that the proposed 160 million facility didn't provide sufficient proof that is was the Best Practical Environmental Option for the area.
Back in March, Shanks were awarded a 25-year contract to treat waste from East London. One of Milton Keynes councillors' fears was that this would see thousands of tonnes of London waste being transported to Milton Keynes.
Commenting on the councillors' decision, a spokesman for Shanks told letsrecycle.com: “While we're a bit disappointed, it didn't come as a great surprise. We will be considering an appeal and in the mean time we will develop and move forward with an alternative proposal.”
It is thought that the alternative proposal, which Shanks have said it will fall back on if it is decided not to proceed with an appeal over Friday's rejection, will be largely the same as the current proposal but without the incineration component. The new proposal would then see the 146 hectare site developed with a mixed material recovery facility (MRF), a segregated MRF and ten 60,000 tonne-capacity bio-MRFs.
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