Rivalry over £77m waste scheme

A site at Bolton Road in Manvers has been provisionally earmarked for the controversial plant – which is set to open in 2015 and would take rubbish collected from Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham.

Four waste specialist organisations originally put forward different proposals to build and run the facility.

Then, the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (BDR) Waste Partnership then narrowed this to two.

Last February, the BDR board announced that Sita Lend Lease and 3SE, a consortium of Shanks Group plc and Scottish and Southern Energy were the two.

Both companies will now display their plans, alongside representatives from the Environment Agency and Health Protection Agency, at a series of drop-in sessions taking place this week and next.

There will be details of the proposals, architectural impressions of what the facilities would look like and the chance to ask questions of staff.

BDR Waste Partnership board chairman Richard Russell said: "We hope as many people as possible take the opportunity to visit these sessions and find out more about what is being proposed.

"All local authorities must have plans in place to manage the waste that is left when everything else possible has been recycled. If we don't, we face very heavy fines.

"At the moment, most of this leftover waste goes to landfill, but landfill sites across the country are almost full, and they produce harmful greenhouses gases which damage the environment."

Mr Russell emphasised that no work could start on the plant until a full planning application had been approved.

"This means local people can find out information about both proposals now," he added. "They will then get a further chance later on in the process, to look and comment on the one detailed preferred proposal at the planning stage."

A total of 77.4m of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding has been secured from central government's waste infrastructure development programme to pay for the scheme.

The preferred option will be chosen later this year and, if planning and other permissions are granted, construction is expected to take two-and-a-half years.

If the 3SE project is chosen, the firm will use waste treatment technology to produce a renewable or "green" fuel for use at Scottish and Southern Energy's Ferrybridge site. The "green" energy produced can then be used by residents and businesses.

Meanwhile, the Sita UK and Catalyst Lend Lease consortium would build the Dearne Valley Treatment and Energy Centre (TEC), a hi-tech recycling and renewable energy plant.

It is expected the chosen plant will deal with more than 200,000 tons of waste each year – almost 600 tons per day – delivered by lorries to the site from Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster.

The scheme has, however, proved highly controversial with residents. An action group called Bolton And Dearne Households Against Recycling in Manvers – or Bad Harm – has been formed to fight the scheme, claiming that the burning of waste could endanger health and that locals have not been adequately consulted.

Each of the planned drop-in public consultation sessions runs from 12noon to 8pm.

They will take place on Wednesday, June 16 at the Prospect Road Community Centre in Bolton on Dearne; on Friday, June 18 at the Montgomery Hall in Wath-on-Dearne and on Tuesday, June 22 at the Mexborough Resource Centre.