Deal for new Allerton waste plant agreed

Construction work is due to get underway as soon as next month, contractors AmeyCespa said, whose newly sealed waste management contract with the county council lasts for 25 years.

The Allerton Waste Recovery Park (AWRP) will be built at an existing landfill and former quarry site off the A168, but the plans had been met with fierce opposition from community campaigners.

But building work that is expected to last 36 months will start in December. Once complete, the waste facility will process some commercial waste and around 320,000 tonnes of household waste from North Yorkshire County Council and York Council each year, and is expected to generate renewable electricity to power the equivalent of more than 40,000 homes.

The scheme will create 400 new jobs during construction and 70 permanent skilled and semi-skilled posts once operational.

In total, the cost of the project is £319.5 million, with the UK Green Investment Bank announcing yesterday that it would be plunging £33.1m into the scheme.

Shaun Kingsbury, chief executive of the UK Green Investment Bank, said: “This innovative project is a best-in-class example of how local authorities can improve recycling and generate significant amounts of renewable power from household waste.

“GIB is proud of its track record supporting innovation in the waste and recycling sector and particularly pleased that this impressive facility is the first to feature the full complement of waste treatments and new technologies.”

Further funding is being provided by Aberdeen UK Infrastructure Partners and Equitix.

In a statement, North Yorkshire County Council said the anticipated long term savings on waste treatment costs add to up £250m over the life of the contract, adding: “AWRP will treat the household waste left over after recycling and composting (plus some commercial waste from local businesses and offices) through anaerobic digestion and energy from waste incineration. It will result in a significant reduction in North Yorkshire’s and York’s ‘carbon footprint’ and produce enough electricity to power a town the size of Harrogate.”

The plant will add approximately £220m to the York and North Yorkshire economy over the life of the contract through jobs creation, it said.

Opponents to the scheme have argued that the facility is based on overestimates of the amount of waste that will be generated in North Yorkshire in the coming years.

Andrew Jones, Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said he was “very disappointed”, adding: “We have to dispose of our waste but I wanted to see less waste generated in the first place by programmes to minimise it and to increase recycling. The contract is over-spec for the amount of waste that will be generated in the county and I felt that the financial risk as the project proceeded disproportionately places risk on the public sector rather than the private sector.”