The 100 million facility, to be operated by the Waste Recycling Group, was granted an Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control permit by the Environment Agency last week.
The plant will be built in a former quarry at Allington, near Maidstone, which has been partially filled with inert material. The plant buildings will be sunk into the quarry so their heights are in line with neighbouring premises, although the 80-metre chimney will compensate for the lower level of the facility.
As well as the incinerator component, the new plant will include a materials recycling facility, gas cleaning equipment and an air monitoring station that will be operational before the plant begins taking in waste.
A consultation on the plant heard evidence from Kent county council and several borough councils, the Kent Local Health Protection Unit, the Food Standards Agency and English Nature as well as members of the public.
A statement from the Environment Agency commenting on its decision to award the permit said: “The Agency has considered all the responses submitted and the proposed management of the process, the design of the whole plant and the control of emissions. The Environment Agency was satisfied that the application, together with additional information requested from the company, fully meets the requirements of the Regulations.”
Reference
WRG, through its subsidiary Kent Enviropower Ltd, had gained planning permission for the plant in the year 2000, and applied for its IPPC permit in January 2003. Agency officials have since visited a “reference plant” in Madrid, which uses the fluidised bed technology proposed for Allington.
Commenting on receipt of the permit, Jim Meredith, chief executive of WRG, said: “We are delighted to have been given our permit by the Environment Agency. The facilities proposed for Allington Quarry are of the highest quality in the world. We are confident that the facility can be run to meet or be better than all the environmental standards set in the UK and in the rest of Europe.”
The plant will take waste largely from Kent, including the boroughs of Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks, Swale and Gravesham. It may also take waste from Bexley, which is currently home to the planning inquiry into the proposed Belvedere incinerator.
Below: An impression of how the new energy from waste recovery plant will look at Allington, Kent |
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