The facility – proposed for a brownfield site in Ford, near Littlehampton – was to be a “showcase” plant for the county's 25-year PFI recycling contract with Viridor Waste Management.
”There are significant cost implications resulting from this. “
– Graham Warren, Viridor
Initially, plans were for the MRF to sort about 54,000 tonnes of paper, metals, plastics and glass from kerbside collections, bring banks and household waste recycling centres. The plant, which would have provided 73 jobs, ultimately would have gone on to process 100,000 tonnes of material each year by 2017/18.
In a meeting on February 1, the county council's planning committee turned down the planning permission application for the MRF – despite council officers advising them that “there is a significant and widely-accepted need for the facility within the county”.
A spokesman for the county council said the Ford MRF had been turned down on “highway grounds”, with the committee “worried about the vehicles involved”. He said “The county council will now be sitting down with its contractor, Viridor, and looking at the options available.”
Setback
Viridor Waste Management called the committee's decision a “major setback” for the county's recycling.
Graham Warren, Viridor's regional manager, said: “It is highly likely that by delaying the provision of the much-needed recycling facilities the county will need to rely on other solutions, and potentially there are significant cost implications resulting from this.”
The company could still seek an appeal against the decision, and a spokesman for Viridor told letsrecycle.com that no decision had been made yet concerning such a move. But, the company is already in talks with the county council about the possible options following the planning decision.
At the moment, a large proportion of the county's recyclables are sorted at the MRF run by Viridor in Sompting. However, this MRF is to close in December 2006.
Mr Warren said: “Highways issues and 'government and countryside policies' were reasons cited for the refusal. The result is that West Sussex's wastes will have to travel further for recovery at greater cost to the environment, and possibly the Council Tax payer.”
Officers
In a report to the committee, council officers had said the Ford site had been identified in the Waste Local Plan as suitable for waste management, and recommended that “the county council's head of planning services be authorised to grant planning permission”.
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Officers said: “The Ford site meets the key operational criteria being; of a suitable size, compatible with surrounding land uses, unlikely to give rise to the significant environmental effects and being situated on previously developed land.”
However, officers had noted that “possibility of a more alternative site has been promoted by a large number of objectors” because a MRF further to the north east would be likely to reduce the mileage to reprocessors”.
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