Westbury waste incinerator; decision next spring, NREL says it will still build, and the delay could be costly for council

A FINAL decision on the highly controversial £200million proposed waste incinerator for Westbury is not expected until spring next year, says the inspector appointed by the government to run the public inquiry, which was completed last week.

Northacre Renewable Energy (NREL), the company which has submitted plans to build the energy-from-waste incinerator, has confirmed that if the planning inspector refuses their current plans, the company will instead commence construction of an advanced thermal treatment (ATT) plant, for which they have previously been granted approval by Wiltshire Council.

In a further twist, if the planning inspector says the plans should be turned down, NREL could claim costs from Wiltshire Council for delaying the decision.

The planning inquiry took place over seven days between 22nd November and 8th December. On the final day of the inquiry, both Wiltshire Council and representatives from NREL gave their closing statements.

In their closing statement, Wiltshire Council’s representative said that the application is, “The wrong proposal, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.”

He went on to say that the council believes an incinerator of this size would produce, “Substantial absolute and net carbon emissions contrary to the drive to reduce the same; that it would compromise rather than assist the drive to reduce residual waste arisings; and that the capacity would import waste into the county.”

In NREL’s closing statement, the company’s representative said that Wiltshire does not currently effectively deal with its waste and said that their proposed incinerator would help this. He also said that the site has already been allocated for strategic scale waste treatment facilities, and that Wiltshire Council originally resolved to approve their plans to change the technology of the proposed facility in June of last year.

On the day before the inquiry ended, the inspector heard from interested parties who were unable to speak on previous days, including Arla Foods (Westbury) Ltd.

Arla’s spokesperson said, “The Westbury dairy, which employs 250 people and processes around 5% of Britain’s milk into powder and butter, is immediately adjacent to the site of the proposed incinerator.

“We have consistently opposed the application before you because of the risk that emissions from the proposed incinerator could taint our products, as we need constant access to clean, fresh air.”

Arla’s spokesperson went on to say that if there was any tainting or contamination of their product, they would have to suspend their operations which would cost the company £11,000 an hour. He said that although they have been given reassurances that there will be no risk of product tainting during normal operations, facilities such as the one proposed are, “unlikely to operate perfectly all the time.”

The planning inquiry was called for by NREL who said that Wiltshire Council had taken too long to make a decision on the company’s amended plans, which are for a moving-grate combustion waste incinerator. These plans were approved by a committee of Wiltshire Council in June 2021. However, following a public outcry, the then Secretary of State, Michael Gove MP, was asked to “call in” the application for further scrutiny. He turned down this request in March this year, saying that local communities should make the decision. Then in July this year, Wiltshire councillors again considered the plans and this time voted against them. However, NREL lodged an appeal, saying Wiltshire Council had taken too long to make a decision and as a result, the planning inquiry has now been completed by the government’s inspector.