Viridor revises Cheshire waste plans
Viridor has submitted a revised planning application for a mechanical biological treatment plant to process household waste at Lostock Gralam in Cheshire.
The original plan was rejected as too large and because of its potential threat of increased traffic on local roads.
The size of the facility was reduced from a capacity of 250,000 tonnes a year to 200,000 tonnes of residual waste a year.
Viridor is in the final round of bidding for the 25-year, £850m private finance initiative. Solid recovered fuel produced by Viridor would be used to power the Ineos Chlor facility at Runcorn.
The other finalist bidding for the contract is Resource Recovery Solutions, a consortium of United Utilities and Interserve. RRS has yet to resubmit its application after it also had the first planning application turned down.
Dan Cooke, external affairs manager of Viridor, said: "The revised proposals now submitted to Cheshire West and Chester Council offer best practice residual waste treatment which will bring many positive benefits including local jobs, substantial investment and local energy production."
"Mechanical Biological Treatment is a proven technology offering a viable and cost effective alternative to landfill and we are confident that this new application has addressed any issues that the Strategic Planning Committee may have had in the previous submission."
Viridor will also appeal against the refusal of the previous application to the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, with the appeal being considered by the Planning Inspectorate possibly by way of a Public Inquiry.
Readers should be aware that the planning applications by Covanta to build a 370,000 tonnes capacity waste incinerator in Middlewich and by TATA/Brunner Mond for another of 600,000 tonnes capacity have nothing to do with waste generated in Cheshire itself. The Viridor application, plus another from RRS, are intended to deal with Cheshire waste.
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The potential impact on the residential and commercial property market of having two huge waste incinerators, on the Knutsford side of Northwich and Middlewich, within a short distance of such desirable areas as Knutsford and Wilmslow is likely to be significant. Hence the operators are trying to keep their plans a secret. When will the property professionals wake up? There is an elephant in the room!
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