MP calls for a permit pause
Halifax’s MP has called for a pause on determination of environmental permits for incinerators to be widened to include applications made to local authorities.
Holly Lynch challenged the leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, over the issue in Parliament last week.
Incinerators are often controversial, and opponents are currently mobilising against a waste company’s plans to run one in Sowerby Bridge.
Calderdale Council will need to determine the second applicationfromCalderValley Skip Hire for a permit to run a smallwasteincinerationplant at its Belmont works.
The government has temporarily banned permits for some new incinerator plants in England, including one the environment secretary Steve Barclay is fighting to stop being built in his North East Cambridgeshire constituency, national media reported this week.
The decision to instruct the Environment Agency to temporarily stop granting licences was made by junior environment minister Sir Mark
Spencer, after Mr Barclay was recused from the process.
But Mr Spencer’s letter to the Environment Agency states this pause does not apply to a number of other environmentalpermitsorvariation applications to existing ones, including “small waste incineration plants”, said Labour MP Ms Lynch.
Speaking in the House of Commons this week, Ms Lynch said ministers issued the direction to the Environment Agency, temporarily pausing the determination of environmental permits for new waste incineration facilities to allow DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) chance to examine the role of incineration in the management of residual waste.
“However, she will also be aware that the majority of permits are considered and granted by local authorities rather than the Environment Agency.
“Much to the annoyance of residents right across Calderdale, this pause doesn’t apply to those permits applied for at local authorities rather than the Environment Agency."
The company’s new application follows a planning inspector’s decision not to allow the company’s appeal against the council’s alleged failure to rule on a previous environmental permit application, effectively refusing permission for the permit.