Artists impression of the incinerator

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has upheld the decision to grant planning approval to waste management firm Viridor to build an incinerator in the London Borough of Sutton.

The £200-million Beddington incinerator (referred to by Viridor as an energy recovery facility (ERF)) had already been issued with an environmental permit and planning permission earlier this year - but the Mayor's office had the final say.

The Mayor’s planning report for Beddington Farmlands Waste Management Facility, released yesterday (21 August), stated that ‘a number of issues raised to date in terms of delivery of CHP [combined heat and power], the landfill restoration and biodiversity, technical energy and carbon details, as well as air quality and transport matters have been satisfactorily resolved through the provision of additional information… such that the scheme is in accordance with the London Plan.’

The report adds its recommendation that Sutton Council ‘be advised that the Mayor is content for it to determine the case itself, subject to any action that the Secretary of State may take, and does not therefore wish to direct refusal or direct that he is to be the local planning authority’.

Speaking of the decision, Ian John, Head of Planning at Viridor, said: “[This] decision builds on the approval of the London Borough of Sutton and is another important step towards achieving planning permission and the delivery of next generation infrastructure for South London.

“Working in tandem with waste reduction, reuse, and enhanced recycling, Viridor’s Beddington ERF will play an important role in diverting waste from landfill, recovering renewable energy from what remains.

“Operating to the highest national and international standards, the facility will deliver real environmental, economic, social and community benefits.”

Energy from waste

The proposed Sutton incinerator will convert around 275,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste into electricity – enough to power around 30,000 homes – and heat (to be utilised locally) and aims to divert around 95 per cent of waste inputs away from landfill.

The facility will incinerate residual domestic waste and use the steam to drive a turbine that will produce electricity and heat. This will generate up to 26 megawatts (MW) of electricity, of which 22 MW will be fed into the supply grid via an existing sub-station.

The SLWP waste contract demands that Viridor commit to the closure of their existing landfill by the end of 2017, six years earlier than presently required.

Viridor says that the new ERF will create hundreds of jobs during its construction, and 40 permanent roles once operational.

Opposition

The incinerator has been met with local and political opposition with London Labour Assembly Member Fiona Twycross having earlier this week called on Boris Johnson’s Chief of Staff Sir Edward Lister to oppose the scheme, which she felt would 'scar the local landscape and [go] against the Mayor’s own Waste Strategy objectives' (which states that London should “move away from a reliance on landfill and incineration”).

Twycross said: “We know from experience with incinerators that too often they crowd out recycling and must be constantly fed with feeder material to be kept commercially viable. If that means importing waste from all over Southern England, sending lorries down local roads that were never designed for such traffic movements then Londoners will rightly curse the day the Mayor approves this scheme.”

London Assembly Green Party Member Jenny Jones has also voiced disappointment with the outcome, saying: “The Mayor’s decision is an environmental disaster for south London and the recycling and composting industry. The Mayor has failed to observe his own planning and waste policies which state that incineration is the least desirable form of waste management. Instead he has put the interests of big business first, before legitimate environmental concerns and the interests of local residents that will be affected by his decision”.

Campaigners including Stop the Incinerator Campaign have argued that the incinerator could impact of local health, a claim which Viridor denies.

Overcapacity

The Beddington plant is one of the latest of several energy-from-waste plants to get the go-ahead, despite a recent report from Eunomia Research & Consulting suggesting that the UK could see overcapacity in residual waste treatment plants by 2015, if the current rate of construction is not curbed. The report suggests that due to increased emphasis on recycling, reusing and recovering material, residual waste rates are falling, leaving incinerators without the required levels of waste needed to produce efficient and cost-effective processes.

Viridor will provide an interim service to the partnership beginning in April 2014 until the facility is operational in 2017.

Find out more about the Beddington facility or the incineration process.