Rivenhall Airfield Planning Application - Yet more changes to plans for waste incinerator

 

This latest planning bid would suggest a significant possibility that if one half of the site was to be built, with a gap of up to 5 years until the second half is built, then the second half might not be built at all or something else may be built subject to further planning applications.

 

The waste site started out as a "recycling and composting plant for Essex" (the "RCF") with a planning condition imposed by Essex County Council of no waste burning. The new plans for phase 1 appear to be an incinerator with a paper pulping factory next to it and very little recycling capacity - not the "Integrated" facility argued for at the Inquiry.

 

Cllr. James Abbott, District Councillor for Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall said

 

"The continual changes over many years amount to a process of moving the goalposts, which Essex County Council has to date mostly allowed. The original "RCF" plant was described as a "recycling and composting plant for Essex". The latest version of half the plant granted consent at the 2009 Inquiry would essentially be a waste incinerator attached to a paper pulping plant with greatly reduced space for recycling. The largest operational element would be the incinerator. If phase 2 does not materialise, this is moving the plant even further towards polluting waste disposal rather than recycling.

 

The proposal to build only phase 1 first raises questions as to the amount of incinerator fuel to be imported. The application refers to 360,000 tonnes per annum of "Solid Recovered Fuel" (dried mashed up waste) - a figure higher than any proposed at the Inquiry. Less paper is to be imported. This implies that the incinerator capacity may in future be increased with questions as to what the emissions will be that local people will have to breathe in.

 

It appears that this latest change is a response to commercial, not land use planning issues. At the Inquiry the applicant was questioned about viability and strong reassurances were given by the developer to the Inspector that it was viable.

 

We remain opposed to any major waste plant in the countryside at Rivenhall Airfield. These latest plans show on ongoing process of uncertainty and open the door to an even worse scenario than was proposed at the Inquiry. We hope Essex County Council will refuse the application, but given their past performance, and the documented commercial interest that the council has had in this site, together with the various agreements made with the developers, there remains an overiding concern that these matters should be dealt with entirely independently from the county council.

 

There is also a huge irony that residents in Braintree District are doing a great job in recycling, with all party support on the district council to make recycling a success, yet the district could be hosting a polluting waste incinerator that relies on huge quantities of waste being trucked in along the A120 from outside the district."

 

ENDS

 

 

Notes:

 

The application contains just 2 drawings that replace the much more detailed relevant drawings from the list that the Inquiry Inspector set out in Condition 2 of the planning approval.

There are no separate phase 1 and phase 2 plan drawings. It is not even possible to be clear what area phase 1 will cover - there are just 2 poorly drawn dotted lines shown on replacement plan DBE--RIV-001. 

There are no elevations of how the phase 1 building will look when viewed from the front.

There are no details of the "temporary" access door.

The construction of a new continuous outside wall to the building was not agreed at the Inquiry.

Changes to the positions of some external elements of the plant including siting, heights and access are being proposed.

The changes now proposed appear to be a precusor to even more changes to come as the text of the application makes it clear that a grant of this "NMA" will trigger further applications.