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Permit for controversial waste facility set to be considered
OPPONENTS to the planned new waste facility at Manvers, in the Dearne Valley, can now raise their objections with the Environment Agency.
Shanks Waste Management Limited today submitted an environmental permit application for the proposed Bolton Road waste treatment to the agency.
The company will need to gain the permit from the Environment Agency before it is allowed to commence operations at the new plant, which will recycle black bag waste from households in Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham - leaving just 1.5 per cent of rubbish to go to landfill.
In April last year Shanks Waste Solutions and Scottish and Southern Energy, which together formed the company 3SE, were selected as the preferred developers for the multi-million pound waste facility.
A spokesman for the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (BDR) Waste Partnership said: “The environmental permit is a permission that Shanks must obtain from the Environment Agency before operating the facility, to demonstrate it has a clear management and procedural programme for ensuring that it will operate to required standards.
“A period of 20 working days is allowed for interested parties to comment on the application prior the Environment Agency determining the permit.”
The 3SE firm plans to build a Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plant and an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant on the Bolton Road site, which could open in the spring of 2015.
It would process an expected 200,000 tons of household waste each year and first remove materials that can be reused or recycled - such as metals, glass, plastics and compost.
Remaining waste would be “biodried” and turned into fuel to be burned at the Ferrybridge power station, near Knottingley, in a process which could provide enough energy to power 36,000 homes.
The scheme will create more than 40 jobs at Manvers and a further 25 at Ferrybridge.
Thus far, 3SE’s plans have met with some criticism from locals, with only a fifth of people who responded to a public consultation on the development saying they were in favour of it.
In July last year, the company held three separate public exhibitions in Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham during which members of the public could view and comment on its proposals.
A total of 18,499 newsletters were also hand-delivered to households and businesses in the area.
However, only 129 people attended the public exhibitions and just 34 people – two per cent of the total number polled – responded to the consultation.
Of those 34 respondents, just seven people said the waste site would be a “good facility” and the other 27 raised concerns on a variety of issues, mostly traffic.
A planning application for the plant, which is supported by more than £77m of private finance initiative funding, was submitted to Rotherham Council in November last year but has still not yet been determined.
Prior to being considered by the authority’s planning board, the application is being scrutinised by a number of organisations including Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster councils.
Meanwhile, a Barnsley waste and recycling firm which recycles some of Britain’s biggest pieces of electrical kit has just completed a £4m expansion.
C Soar and Sons is the country’s largest specialist in dismantling, recycling and disposing of redundant equipment such as transformers and generators.
New investment at the company’s base in Tank Row, Stairfoot, has created 10 jobs as well as a revamped site with new offices, training rooms and a testing laboratory.
Operations manager Dale Evans said: “We hope that our recent investment will help us to become recognised as the centre of expertise in the disposal of power transformers.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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