01 May Indaver respond to Essex County Council’s stack height consultation.
GFC are pleased to note that Essex County Council have consulted on the most recent studies we provided as a result of our public consultation surrounding the Rivenhall IWMF. We also acknowledge the resolution made by the Committee to go along with the recommendation to refuse planning permission for the taller stack, pending the outcome of this consultation. Importantly, for the reassurance of the public, Essex County Council also acknowledged that they did not believe there were grounds to refuse the application on health or air quality impacts.
Meanwhile, our application to the Environment Agency for a revised permit to match the existing planning permission for a 35m stack is ongoing. We have submitted further information at their request, and we will now wait while they consider the application.
GFC continues to maintain that the facility is needed. The Environmental Services Association recently stated, “We send around 3.5 million tonnes of residual waste to overseas EfW (Energy-from-Waste) plants, and continue to landfill around 12Mt of household and commercial waste, which we would not need to do if we had sufficient EfW capacity.”
This has been reinforced recently by independent consultants who have identified the South East as having a particularly acute shortfall in Energy-from-Waste capacity. Essex continues to export 200,000 tonnes of residual waste annually to the continent, clearly demonstrating that Essex is not self-sufficient when it comes to residual waste.
