Waste plant expansion is approved

A SEWAGE plant near Cardiff has been given the go-ahead to expand despite residents’ fears over the smell and noise.

Cog Moors Welsh Water Treatment Works, between Barry and Dinas Powys, has been given permission to build a new advanced anaerobic digestion plant at the site.

The new plant, which will involve new storage tanks, and a stack built up to 18 metres high, will be used to convert sewage sludge into gas, which would then be used to generate electricity, and as soil fertiliser.

Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Planning Committee approved planning permission for the sewage works expansion on Thursday.

But that was after councillor Bob Penrose, a member of the committee, raised residents’ concerns about the odour, emissions, traffic and visual impact of the development – as well as it being on a flood plain.

“Over the last few years there have been numerous complaints on odour from these sewage works,” he told the meeting.

“But none have ever been resolved and they have all been denied.”

Councillor Penrose said the new plant would be visible for some residents in Sully, and would add to existing emissions in the area.

The meeting heard there will be three sensitive receptors installed to improve odour monitoring at the site.

Questions were also asked about the increased number of vehicles that would be going to and from the site, and whether the plant would kill all pathogens – bacteria which cause disease – from the waste.

Planning consultant Howard Jones, representing the Cog Moors plant, told the meeting there would be eight more HGV movements a day to and from the site, up from its current level of up to 21.

He said the plant’s pathogen kill rate “will be as close to 100% as can be achieved”.

Mr Jones told the committee: “Public Health Wales have confirmed emissions to air will be well within air pollution thresholds, and will have no adverse impact on human health.

“Odour modelling shows the proposed development will not result in increase levels of odour. There will be no adverse noise impacts as a result of the proposed development.”

He added that while there will be a minor increase in HGV movements each day, this will be directed away from Dinas Powys and towards the McDonald’s roundabout junction.

Councillor Jonathan Bird said: “You all forget that this is a facility that is processing our waste. We need it to be going somewhere.

“This is the plant at which the drains all end up. This is a marked improvement on what is being done.”

Victoria Robinson, Vale of Glamorgan Council’s operational manager for developments, told the meeting the scheme is a major investment by Welsh Water, having considered alternative options across Wales.