Shropshire council blocks Veolia EfW proposal

Shropshire council's planning committee yesterday (September 1) voted unanimously to block a proposal by Veolia Environmental Services to develop a 90,000 tonnes-a-year capacity energy-from-waste facility at Battlefield in Shrewsbury.

The development, which was expected to cost around £60 million to develop, would have been the cornerstone of the waste and recycling firm's PFI-backed long-term waste contract with Shropshire, which it signed in October 2007 (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Battlefield Enterprise Park energy-from-waste incinerator was intended to treat residual waste from the local area with some commercial waste. Veolia aimed to produce 8MW of electricity from the treatment of waste at the site, which is enough to meet the electricity needs of 10,000 homes.

Councillors on the strategic planning committee voted 10 to none that the proposal should be refused, despite having been recommended to approve the proposal by planning officers ahead of the meeting.

In a 172-page outline document issued ahead of the meeting, planning officers said that, while the proposal did not “fully comply” with the council's Local Waste Plan, it did represent a suitable use of the Battlefield site.

However, concerns had been voiced ahead of the meeting by local parish councils about the health risks, the suitability of the site and the impact on the visual landscape.

A spokesman for the council told letsrecycle.com that yesterday's meeting had lasted for four hours and that the official reasons behind the refusal were currently being written up by the committee officials.

“The headline is it has been refused but there is a reason for that and they need to be clarified by the [planning] committee officials and then confirmed by the planning officer before it is released by the council.”

“Huge disappointment”

Commenting on the refusal, Donald Macphail, managing director for Veolia Shropshire said of the decision: “The decision by Shropshire council to refuse our planning application is a huge disappointment. But we have a strong application and we will now consider the merits of an appeal to the Secretary of State.”

Mr Macphail stressed that the there is a “need” for the facility to be developed in Shropshire. He added: “This facility is a crucial part of the strategy to recover value from waste through the production of energy.”

And, also responding to the decision taken by the strategic planning committee, Shropshire council said it was “disappointed” by the outcome of the meeting.

Andy Goldsmith, assistant director for public protection with Shropshire council, said: “As waste authority, Shropshire council is disappointed that the council's strategic planning committee has decided to refuse Veolia's application for an energy-from-waste facility at Battlefield in Shrewsbury.

“We will now work with Veolia to examine the reasons for the refusal, and to consider the best course of action. It would therefore be inappropriate for the council, as the waste authority, to comment further at this stage.”

Veolia was unavailable for comment at the time of publication but is expected to issue a statement on the decision later today.

The refusal by the strategic planning committee comes just weeks after David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of SITA UK, warning that the decisions being taken by local councillors in preventing energy-from-waste facilities could have detrimental repercussions for future landfill waste diversion efforts (see letsrecycle.com story).