Newhaven Incinerator Go Ahead - can it handle all our waste?

What's the latest news?

The incinerator is now being constructed. Last year ESCC gave Veolia, who have a 25 year waste management contract with the council, planning permission approval to develop an 'Energy Recovery Facility' (they don't call it an incinerator!) at North Quay, but the local pressure group, DOVE, held up commencement of the works through various legal challenges, the last of which failed last November. However, DOVE continued to oppose the issue of a Pollution Prevention and Control Permit (PPE) by the Environment Agency, but this was finally issued on 13th March 2009.

Is the incinerator important?

It is crucial. Currently, most East Sussex waste still ends up in landfill, but there are only two sites left in East Sussex and these are to close shortly. They are Beddingham (Viridor), due to close this year, and Pebsham (BIFFA), mostly due to close this year, though landfilling of the northern infill will continue till 2013. Once these sites close, without the incinerator there would be no significant waste disposal facility in East Sussex. If the incinerator had been refused planning permission it is certain there would have been greater pressure to create a landfill site at Ashdown.

Technical Information: Extract from the ESCC Planning Committee notes

4.2 The proposed ERF will be a twin stream plant, with a theoretical maximum throughput of 242,000 tonnes per annum (tpa). It has been designed to operate at 85% of this capacity to allow for essential maintenance requirements, so the plant's actual operating capacity is estimated to be 210,000 tpa or 28 tonnes per hour (tph).

4.3 The ERF plant itself will operate continuously, except for maintenance or emergencies, but deliveries will only take place from 0700 - 1730 on Mondays to Fridays and 0800 - 1500 on Saturdays; occasional deliveries will take place outside these hours. Planned maintenance will take place twice annually, once for one week and once for two weeks, which would allow one stream to continue operations to treat directly delivered waste only.

4.4 With a throughput of 210,000 tonnes of waste treated annually, the process will be likely to generate 52,900 tpa of bottom ash from the combustion process, and 8,400 tpa of recovered ferrous metals. This represents 25% of the waste input by tonnage and 10% by volume. The applicant states that options for processing bottom ash for use as an aggregate are under consideration.

Also heat energy in the form of steam will be collected and used to generate 16.5 megawatts of electricity enough to provide for 25,000 homes.

Can it handle all our waste?

The maximum amount of waste the incinerator could handle is 245,000 tonnes per annum. East Sussex waste currently amounts to 400,000tpa, however it is estimated that with increased recycling, this might be reduced to 250,000tpa by 2012. So, yes, it just might, but the recycling target might be over optimistic. Secondly, there the matter of 'bottom ash' or 'fly ash' from the scrubbers, and the recovered metals. They will need to be found a home.

What is certain is that it couldn't handle London waste as well!

Under the South East Plan, East Sussex is due to take 1.6 million tonnes of London waste over the period till 2026. It is impossible that the incinerator could handle this as well as our own waste.

Is incineration a safe way of disposing of waste?

There is a lot of disagreement on this issue, but the main 'experts' say that modern technology makes incineration far safer than previously, with tight control emissions. According to the Environment Agency, the new permit (PPC) sets strict conditions governing the operation of the incinerator, measuring any pollution to ensure that public health and the environment are protected.

BALI - Still in Business?

Friends of B.A.L.I.

Perhaps you are asking – is B.A.L.I. still in business – if so what are they doing? Or have they run off with our money and all our accrued interest!? Let's answer the easy questions first.

No, we have not run off with your precious savings; your money is still safe and sound in the Yorkshire Building Society - and perhaps we should gloss over the subject of the huge sums of interest you are earning from your investments! However, B.A.L.I. would like to thank all of you who have stayed with us and given so generously over the years because you feel our town is worth fighting for and you refuse to accept that it could be blighted by a landfill site for the next 30 years.

So what have we been doing? Our fund raising efforts continue. To date we have raised £23,000 for the War Chest; this money is 'ring fenced' and will only be used to fight any planning application. The 'every day' fund stands at £8,000, and is augmented by the weekly bonus ball lottery; (there are still a few 'lucky numbers' available! Please phone 845688 if you would like to join in the fun).

Our Solicitors (Stallards) continue to keep B.A.L.I. informed of any developments re. landfill issues, on which we act if necessary.

B.A.L.I. meets every 6 months with the Manager and Company Secretary of Ibstocks. We hope these frank discussions keep us in the picture regarding changes of use of the brick works site.

We are members of the Rother Environmental Group who meet monthly; we also take a keen interest in the Highwood Preservation Society. Our website is out of date. From now on it will be up dated monthly with new and relevant information.

Hope to see some of you through the spring and summer months – we accept that trying to raise funds in this period of recession is going to prove very difficult. However, let's keep up the good fight.

Mike Rosner (B.A.L.I.)

Letter published in the Bexhill Observer March 20th 2009

BALI Chairman Newsletter - March 2009 (2)

BALI Chairman Newsletter - March 2009 (continued)

Recently, we had good news that the Bexhill Cemetery is to be extended, despite Ibstock's objections and appeals, into the 'four fields' that were claimed to be needed by Ibstock for stockpiling of clay in the event of a landfill. But, reading Ibstock's barrister's case, as BALI was privileged to do, you realise how strongly Ibstock still want to keep an option to landfill their Ashdown site. So they might appeal, or buy other fields, or cope with excess clay in some other ways, given they have strong intention to use Ashdown one day for landfill. I don't think for one minute that they have got together and said 'Well that's it then, we won't have a landfill at Ashdown'. It's far too important to them.

An then, almost out of the blue, reading Rother District's latest Local Development Framework document, I came across a section which, in line with the WLP's vision for the Ashdown site, proposed a 'country avenue' from the Link Road, across the A269 to 'provide the infrastructure essential to the planned landfill use of the Ibstock site'. Clearly, Rother District Council hasn't forgotten about a landfill at Ashdown!

Neither have East Sussex County Council, but they are being more objective in their consideration of future waste disposal in the county than previously. They are looking in the Waste and Mineral Development Framework to reduce landfill as much as possible and they will set about a 'fresh' selection of sites, even including sites that were previously rejected in the Waste Local Plan. But Ashdown will certainly be in the frame; that is clear, especially if the South East Plan is approved(as I believe it will) requiring East Sussex to accept for disposal 1.6 million tonnes of London waste over the period till 2026. The new Newhaven Incinerator will certainly not be able to cope with that as well as East Sussex waste.

I have been working hard these past six months making representations on behalf of BALI to all these plans and frameworks and liaising constantly with all the relevant bodies and key players. We have also been meeting with Ibstock in a good atmosphere, believing that engagement with them does not represent any endorsement of their plans. We must be careful however, that we are not in any sense 'soft-soaped'.

That there is still no 'big news'- of a planning application for instance - lulls most Bexhillians understandably into a false sense of security regarding the Ashdown site. BALI has however, tried not to do much publicity for our cause in the past six months as it were to wake people up. We don't believe it's our role to 'hype up' our case when there is no firm news. It could be counter productive.

However, I believe that in the next six months, something 'big' will break and the media will take it up, quite likely in a major way. The South East Plan will likely be approved and there will be focused attention in the media on where the projected London waste will go. The ESCC Waste and Minerals Development Framework will reach the stage of 'Strategic Site Allocation' and possibly 'site selection', bringing landfill at the Ashdown site up for attention in the same way as previously did the Waste Local Plan. Against this background, Ibstock, faced with declining orders for bricks, might get an offer from a waste contractor that it simply cannot refuse.

When we get wind of something important happening, or certainly at the next stage of the WMDF, we will re-engage our legal consultant, Geoff Smith of DMH Stallard to represent us, utilising the funds my colleagues have raised and we have safeguarded for the important fight I am convinced still lies ahead to prevent the devastation that would be caused to the whole of Bexhill by a new landfill in the Ashdown quarries.

To successfully fight a landfill, we will need planning and environmental experts, and, of course, lawyers. These cost money. Without the funds raised by Mike Rosner and his team we couldn't afford to hire them and therefore would have no chance of winning. Even so, we will have a long hard fight on our hands and probably more funds - and certainly more volunteers - will be needed. But this report should end with a big thank you to all those who have raised funds and those who have donated money to our cause, without which we wouldn't be able to move forward in our campaign at all.

Nick Hollington

Chairman BALI

March 2009