Plans for an incinerator near Derby have been thrown out by a planning inspector at a public hearing.
The application for the gasification incinerator at Sinfin Lane, Derby had been rejected by Derby City Council back in December 2009 (see news story), on the grounds of health and traffic impacts. The incinerator would have burnt 190,000 tonnes per year of waste from Derbyshire.
The applicants, Resource Recovery Solutions appealed against the decision, and a public inquiry was opened in September 2010. That public inquiry concluded with the inspector, Ruth MacKenzie, supporting the Council’s concerns. Although she found no fault with the design of the facility she raised concerns about the impact on the surrounding road network and the accompanying increase in pollution. Somewhat surprisingly, she also stated “local residents’ fears about harm to their health is a material consideration of some weight”.
Ms MacKenzie also went into some detail about the need for the facility, quoting Landfill Directive Targets and referring to recycling policy:
Indeed, in view of successes elsewhere in the UK, I consider [campaign groups] SSAIN’s and FOE’s long-term aspiration of a 70% recycling rate to be realistic. Basing a waste strategy on a 55% recycling level when, within the life-span of the proposed WTF, much higher recycling levels could be achieved gives me some cause for concern. I accept that the proposed WTF would incorporate some recycling, but there is no evidence to show that the MBT/ACT processes are the only means by which higher rates of recycling/composting could be achieved.
This should give hope to waste campaigners everywhere: here’s one planning inspector who’s not so backward as our waste strategy teams seem to be, and can recognise the way that the wind is blowing. You can read the full text of the decision letter, courtesy of the Shrewsbury FoE website.
