Dear Dr Murrison
Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying but note you have sent two separate letters seeking response to questions in relation to the proposed NREL incinerator in Westbury. I will therefore attempt to reply to both of your letters dated 23 September and 16 October with this single response.
From 23 September:
The council has no formal position on the proposed NRE waste incinerator, noting it has proceeded through the planning process. It is being constructed as a commercial “merchant” facility that is not reliant on Wiltshire Council supplying waste to the plant. The planning application for NRE identified that outputs from the Northacre MBT facility, operated by Hills, would be supplied into the adjacent Energy from Waste facility. This would result in reduced traffic movements being required to deliver waste to NRE. A planning condition was imposed on NRE to receive 52,000 tonnes per annum of waste from the MBT, this being the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) typically produced by the MBT and currently exported abroad, and any “fines” from the MBT process. This would lead to an overall carbon reduction due to lower transport miles.
The council continues to monitor the number of complaints it receives into its Public Protection team, and via the monthly contract meetings its officers hold with Hills in relation to the MBT facility. Officers also regularly liaise with officers from the Environment Agency (EA), the body responsible for the regulation of the Environmental Permit under which the Northacre MBT operates.
The EA are the body responsible for the regulation of the Environmental Permit that relates to the operation of the Northacre MBT. The EA will also regulate the Environmental Permit that will govern operations at the proposed NRE EfW facility, if and when it is commissioned.
As per response to Q1, the planning conditions for the proposed NRE facility require that 52,000 tonnes of material from the Northacre MBT is to be delivered to the proposed NRE EfW facility. No ‘deal’ has been signed between the council and Hills in relation to this. However, under the existing MBT contract, the Council may not ‘unreasonably withhold’ permission for Hills to use the proposed NRE facility as the off taker of the RDF materials from the MBT.
Wiltshire Council has been granted a Transition Arrangement by DEFRA to defer its introduction of new statutory separate weekly collections of food waste until August 2027. Officers are actively engaged in putting in place the necessary arrangements for this to happen.
The construction and commissioning of the proposed NRE incinerator is not predicated on Wiltshire’s waste being delivered to that facility for treatment and disposal. Our residual waste arisings already fall short of the total tonnages committed to our two existing landfill diversion contracts (110,000 tonnes split between the Lakeside incinerator in Slough – to 2033, and 60,000 tonne per annum to the Northacre MBT, until 2038). Our planned introduction of separate weekly collections of food waste could further reduce our residual waste tonnage by an estimated 19,000 to 21,000 tonnes per year. In addition, a planned introduction of flexible plastics in 2027 and enhanced promotion of our services alongside this, it is expected we will be capturing more household waste material for recycling. Therefore, the availability of household residual waste tonnage is anticipated to decline further as we recycle more waste at the kerbside and through our household recycling centres. Should a requirement be identified for the further treatment of household residual waste in order to avoid sending any to landfill then, in the absence of a local facility, the council would seek to procure treatment capacity at other energy from waste facilities in the region or further afield, with the waste requiring additional haulage, and higher carbon emissions, as a consequence.
From 16 October:
I note your comments about a recent meeting with Arla in Westbury, and suggestion that they may choose not to invest in the local area if the proposed NREL incinerator were to progress. As previously referenced in the responses to your earlier letter, Wiltshire Council does not have a disposal contract in place with NREL. As part of the planning process for the proposed facility, comments and feedback will have been sought from local residents and businesses, and which will have been considered by the relevant committee and also the Secretary of State at the time the application was reviewed, and prior to planning permission being granted.
Kind Regards
Cabinet Office
Web: www.wiltshire.gov.uk