Waste plant plans will go ahead

YOUR Standard reported last week that residents living nearby were unhappy at the proposals.

Lincolnshire County Council’s application for a waste transfer station off Marshall Way, on Somerby Park Industrial Estate was approved by the county council’s planning committee on Monday.

When up and running, the plant could see up to 31 bin lorries a day dumping rubbish inside a purpose built building, before it is bulked up and transported to a new ‘Energy from Waste’ facility being built in Lincoln.

Planning committee member county coun Mick Tinker said he objected to the plant being built.

He represents the Uphill area of Gainsborough and says it will be too close to nearby houses - both existing and planned.

Coun Tinker said: “Plans have been approved by the district council to build a further 2,500 homes south of Foxby Lane over the next 12 years, which is too close to a site that will see some 45,000 tonnes of rubbish pass in and out each year.”

Coun Tinker added that he thought a waste transfer station within the new Somerby Park industrial estate would not help attract the types of business he would like to see come to the town.

“In my opinion the county council should have considered further other sites they have identified, which are more remote from housing and business parks,” he said.

Coun Tinker also suggested there had not been enough public consultation on the proposals.

Two planning applications for waste transfer stations went before Lincolnshire County Council’s planning and regulation committee on Monday, one for Gainsborough and one for Boston. Both were approved.

Coun Lewis Strange, executive member for waste services and green issues said the approval of both waste transfer stations marked ‘another significant step’ towards an entirely new way of dealing with waste.

He said: “A total of five waste transfer stations are needed around the county. There is already a waste transfer station at Louth, one is currently being built at Grantham and construction is about to begin next month for one in Sleaford.”

“Waste that isn’t recycled or composted will be taken to the waste transfer stations by the local district council refuse collection vehicles and loaded onto larger vehicles to be taken to the new Energy from Waste facility in Lincoln, reducing the number of vehicles on the roads.”

“The waste is then turned into something useful at the facility in the form of electricity, rather than sent to costly and environmentally unsound landfill sites, saving taxpayers millions each year.”

A county council spokesman said construction work on the Gainsborough and Louth sites could begin as soon as the end of May. Local construction companies will be procured to carry out the work, which is expected to take six months.

The plants would then be ready by April 2013 so testing can begin before the Energy from Waste facility opens in December 2013.

Operating hours at the Waste Transfer Station in Gainsborough would be 8am - 4pm Monday to Friday, with the flexibility to open outside these hours.

It is predicted that 23 lorries a day could come and go from the plant by 2013/14. This figure could rise to 31 by 2037/38.

The maximum amount of waste stored at any time would be 150 tonnes, with the plant processing up to 45,300 tonnes a year.

The county council said any odour emissions would be kept to a minimum by keeping doors closed and using an ‘odour misting system’ inside.