The plans were rejected despite the project being chosen just five weeks earlier by the county council as its preferred option for treating its residual waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
The rejection, which also went against the advice of the council's planning officers, had appeared to throw Oxfordshire's waste treatment plans into confusion, with the council's reserve bidder – Waste Recycling Group – also having its application to build an incinerator to treat the county's waste refused (see letsrecycle.com story).
Viridor's project manager, Robert Ryan, labelled the Ardley proposals a “safe and cost-effective” way to meet the county's waste treatment needs, and said: “Our site is already an established waste management site with good access to the road network.
“Statutory bodies such as the Highways Agency and the Environment Agency were satisfied that there were no significant negative impacts on the local area. On the contrary, our proposal delivers significant economic and other benefits, including the creation of jobs and the production of electricity,” he added.
Process
As part of the appeal process, the company has submitted documents to the Planning Inspectorate, to be reviewed and validated in the “next few days”, before the Inspectorate sets an appeal date for all parties involved to make representations.
Mr Ryan said Viridor was committed to continue working with the local community and other parties during the appeal process, and said he hoped planning consent would be achieved “soon”.
If built, Viridor expects the Ardley facility will generate up to 24MW of electricity to be supplied to the National Grid, as well as creating around 40 permanent jobs and over 200 during construction.
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