Way cleared for £330m incinerator
PLANS APPROVED DESPITE ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
PLANS for a new waste incinerator at Ratcliffe-on-soar have been given the green light despite concerns over its impact on the environment.
During a Nottinghamshire County Council planning committee meeting on Tuesday, Uniper’s £330m plans for the power station site were approved by nine votes to three, with one abstention.
The coal power station, which is due to be decommissioned in the next five years, sits in the Rushcliffe borough off the A453.
Uniper’s planning application noted some of the key negative impacts identified during planning assessment, all of which were discussed during the meeting.
These concerns included visual impacts, the impact to heritage structures and the demolition of two cooling towers.
Also raised was that the construction and operation of the so-called EMERGE facility (East Midlands Energy Re-generation Centre) would “result in some residual minor environmental issues on air quality, noise, dust and ecology.”
However, Uniper says the magnitude of the effect would be “within the parameters of established environmental control limits.”
Doctor Andy Read, the redevelopment manager for UNIPER, told the committee: “Our vision for Radcliffe is for development that creates high value jobs based on modern industry and manufacturing served by an onsite energy hub.
“This hub would enable electricity and heat to be shared between the businesses and we see it as a key enabler for new businesses coming to the site.
“It gives an immediate climate improvement by displacing landfill and it does have pathways to net-zero and indeed net-negative which is set out in our application, given the right future policy from Government.”
The plans were condemned by members of climate action group Extinction Rebellion, as well as a number of councillors, during the meeting on Tuesday.
A protest was also held by Breathless before the meeting.
Doctor Monica Pallis, for Extinction Rebellion, said the council’s strategies had not caught up with rapidly changing methods which aim to reduce carbon emissions.
“Your administration badly needs a sustainable waste strategy fit for a climate emergency,” she added.
Councillor Jen Walker, the leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Labour group raised a number of questions.
She suggested the proposed creation of 45 jobs was “pitiful” and asked where the waste would come from and where the residual ash would be buried after it was burned.
Councillor Daniel Williamson, for the Ashfield Independents, said: “I am deeply disappointed by the planning committee’s decision today after a robust debate.
“The climate emergency is happening now, it’s no longer a problem for our children and is very much today’s issue.
“Dressing up an incinerator as an environmentally desirable option is not only wrong but deeply disturbing in context.”
According to the committee the plant will produce and emit carbon dioxide at a net carbon gain of more than 100 tonnes every year.
Uniper says incineration is the better option due to waste creating methane when placed in a landfill, while the energy created from the plant will help support the businesses which could be built on-site.
Ratcliffe-onsoar could also be put up as a potential location for a new nuclear fusion plant.
The plans must now go to the Secretary of State for approval.
Dressing up an incinerator as an environmentally desirable option is not only wrong but deeply disturbing.
Cllr Daniel Williamson