The revelation of the forthcoming planning decision comes after Resource Recovery Solutions, the consortium behind the proposal, was issued an environmental permit to operate the plant at Sinfin Lane by the Environment Agency last week (November 12).
The plant is being developed under a contract awarded to Resource Recovery Solutions – comprised of services firms United Utilities and Interserve – to develop a large-scale treatment plant by Derbyshire county and Derby city council in December 2008.
Waste management company Shanks Group has since replaced United Utilities in the consortium after purchasing United Utilities' waste business in October 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the award of the environmental permit, a spokesman for Shanks told letsrecycle.com that the firm anticipated a decision on the plant by November 19.
He said: “The environmental permit is obviously a positive step but we are now awaiting news of the planning decision, as that will come from a different agency to the permitting agency. It is obviously a good step forward in terms of the contract but we will await the planning decision now.”
Sinfin
The Sinfin Lane development is comprised of a number of waste treatment technologies, centring on a 140,000 tonnes-a-year capacity advanced thermal treatment, gasification plant.
The gasification facility is intended to treat residual waste from both Derbyshire county and Derby city councils and is expected to produce 8MW of electricity to be exported to the National Grid.
Technology for the plant is being by energy-from-waste specialist Energos (see letsrecycle.com story).
In addition to the gasification plant, the site will also include a waste treatment and sorting facility, as well as a mechanical biological treatment plant. Under the deal, United Utilities was also charged with management of the county council's 10 household waste and recycling centres – this responsibility now falls to Shanks.
It had been outlined that the plant would potentially be operational by July 2012, however, given the delay caused by the public inquiry, it is anticipated that this timetable will be revised.
Permit
The environmental permit, which had been applied for by United Utilities in July 2009, was granted by the Environment Agency after an assessment of the application and consultation with relevant parties, such as the Health Protection Agency.
Mark Haslam, environment manager at the Agency, said: “In granting this permit we are satisfied that the plant can be built and operated in a way that will not cause significant risk to the environment or public health. We will make sure that any plant that's built will meet high environmental standards and will be operated safely.”
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