Fight goes on, say campaigners, as incinerator project cut back

Planning permission for the controversial 240,000-tonne burner on a site at Saltend to the east of Hull was granted more than three years ago.

But it now appears there has been a radical rethink and next week senior councillors in Hull and the East Riding will be briefed on proposals to drop the amount the incinerator will handle to 165,000 tonnes.

The cost of the project has spiralled to 144m, according to a report in 2008, and recycling has dramatically cut the amount needing to be burned.

Pressure group Holderness Opposes the Incinerator has been fighting the plans for years.

It says an incinerator is not necessary and has urged both councils to explore alternatives.

Spokesman John Dennis said: "Our position is still the same. We are anti-incinerator. That is what we always have been. They will still have a battle on their hands."

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said he was cautiously optimistic. The MP, who has campaigned with councillors and members of the public to stop the incinerator being built at Saltend, said: "With luck this could spell the end of the project and the start of something new."

Mr Stuart added: "The original incinerator was to be huge, old fashioned and inefficient. Most of the energy it was to produce would simply have been vented up the chimney.

"Local people did not want it and we have argued consistently for a greener, cleaner, more sustainable approach to dealing with our waste. I hope there is to be a rethink and that the councils will ask the contractor to come forward with different plans which are acceptable to people in the area and which improve rather than degrade the environment."

Pressure group chairman and East Riding councillor Peter Turner said the councils and incinerator developer WRG could end up falling out. He said: "Unless all parties agree they could leave the agreement.

"My personal opinion is that they must be now at a stage where the situation is very serious and they could end up falling out."

The Saltend project, which is central to the waste management policies of both councils, has been dogged by difficulties since its conception.

WRG signed a 25-year contract to run the plant 10 years ago.

A 165,000-tonne incinerator was initially earmarked for a site in Foster Street, Hull, but planning permission was refused and the Secretary of State rejected the company's appeal.

WRG then came up with plans for the even larger facility at Saltend.

Most of Hull's rubbish goes to landfill in north Lincolnshire, and both councils have repeatedly said they face prohibitive fines if they don't find alternatives. However they have invested heavily in recycling in recent years, with both expected to reach the gold standard of 45 per cent later this year.

A joint statement released by the councils said: "Hull Council and East Riding Council are partners in the Joint Waste Contract and are working well with WRG.

"The councils have no plans to end the contract but are liaising with WRG to clarify the contractual obligations of the parties."

WRG declined to comment.