Sheffield city council has granted permission for Veolia Environmental Services to source an additional 50,000 tonnes of waste feedstock for its energy-from-waste incinerator in order to combat future under-capacity.
The councils City Centre, South and East Planning and Highways Committee opted to approve plans this week (May 23) despite members receiving 22 objections from campaign groups over the proposal.
Veolia first submitted an application to the city council in December 2010 in order to allow a temporary variation of the contractual arrangements for its 225,000 tonne-a-year capacity incinerator at Bernard Road (see letsrecycle.com story).
The waste management firm said it needed to source more material for the plant, known as an Energy Recovery Centre, due to a decline in available feedstock due to increased recycling and reduced waste growth in the Yorkshire city.
And, according to council minutes, Veolia has also found it difficult to source adequate volumes of commercial and industrial waste in the region. However, it anticipates that this will become easier as the Landfill Tax escalator impacts the business sector.
Under condition three of its existing contract with Sheffield, which was signed in 2001, Veolia is able to source 22,500 tonnes of material from outside Sheffield. However, Veolia sought over double this amount in order for the plant to operate at its design capacity.
Approval
The committee voted to support the proposal for a six-year period but opted to limit the sources from which Veolia could accrue feedstock. Veolia confirmed it was willing to accept the limitation.
The catchment area was set as Rotherham, Barnsley, North East Derbyshire and Chesterfield, with the committee not permitting waste to be collected from Doncaster, Bassetlaw, Bolsover, High Peak and Derbyshire Dales. The latter areas had been named as potential sources by Veolia.
Furthermore, the committee said that there was a temporary shortfall in municipal waste management capacity in neighbouring local authority areas. This is while councils, such as Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster develop their own waste treatment capacity over the next four years.
In total, the council received 22 complaints from local campaign groups about the proposal. Various regional arms of Friends of the Earth and People Against Incineration drew attention to issues such as the potential detrimental impact on neighbouring councils recycling and composting performance.
Further complaints related to a supposed lack of evidence from Veolia on how the plans would impact local district heating networks, where the waste would be sourced from and also a rejection of the claim that there was not enough commercial and industrial waste in the region.
However, the Environment Agency and Natural England raised no objection to the proposal.
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