Hillhouse energy recovery centre approved again by Lancs
Originally given the go-ahead by the county council in 2024, the Sesona proposal to build a facility at the Thornton-Cleveleys site returned to committee on technical matters.
The application is for a 72,000 sq ft energy from waste facility – the Thornton Energy Recovery Centre – seeking to recover energy from the controlled combustion of non-hazardous residual waste.
The applicant’s goal is that the output would power close to 20,000 homes, and be capable of exporting heat, in the form of hot water.
Located at Bourne Road, the site – vacant for 25 years – was formerly occupied by an ICI chemical works, and now sits within the Hillhouse tech enterprise zone, within Wyre borough.
Lancashire County Council considered the project in April 2024 and July 2025, resolving to grant permission subject to conditions and a Section 106 agreement covering £12,000 for highway safety improvements on Fleetwood Road North, along with offsite biodiversity net gain.
Although a final draft of the S106 has been prepared and is awaiting signing, no decision notice has yet been issued. And with a fresh, detailed objection having been submitted since the 2025 session, the matter returned to the committee docket – case law requiring that local planning authorities review applications against any relevant material considerations arising after resolutions.
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In this case, there were two such matters. The first was a September 2025 appeal decision for a similar energy-from-waste proposal in Archers Fields, Basildon, where permission was refused because the applicant did not provide firm evidence that heat from the facility could be used, or that carbon capture was realistically deliverable.
The new objection posited that the Archers Fields decision makes clear that applicants must show that heat export is viable and achievable, not simply theoretically possible. Officers noted in a general sense though that the inspector’s conclusions on Archers Fields were based on the particular circumstances of that site.
The second matter was the updated National Policy Statements EN 1 and EN 3, dated December 2025 and published in January 2026 guiding decisions on ‘nationally significant infrastructure projects’ for energy, which in the view of officers should be given limited weight in this case.
Easily the meatiest item on the LCC agenda for June, the application took up the lion’s share of yesterday’s meeting. Reform’s Cllr Martyn Sutton was among those not convinced by the bid, proposing a deferment so that more clarity could be given and questions over the information provided be cleared up.
The motion to defer was defeated, meaning that the substantive motion – the officer recommendation to approve – was put forward, with a majority of seven votes carrying the day.
