New rubbish plant for Hatfield (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

New rubbish plant for Hatfield

3:50pm Sunday 26th October 2008

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A £220 million plant for converting household rubbish from across Hertfordshire into heat and electricity is set to be built close to a Hatfield school.

The county council cabinet decided on Monday to convert the New Barnfield former school site in Travellers Lane into a combined heat and power plant, capable of burning 270,000 tonnes of waste a year, generating electricity and providing heat, possibly for sale to a neighbouring business or office building.

The plant could even provide enough heat and electricity for 20,000 homes.

The cabinet approved the move after the site was earmarked as a possible solution to the problem of what to do with the county's growing mountain of rubbish.

Assistant director of environmental services Richard Brown told the Review; "We understand the concerns of local people, but they should know that these plants are very tightly regulated by the Environment Agency.

He said officers had consulted closely with the management of nearby Southfield special school, whose chief concern was the likely level of lorry traffic bringing waste to the plant.

Stressing that the plant would need a licence from the Environment Agency as well as planning permission he said there would be strict limits to keep traffic, noise and pollution under control.

He added that the council would arrange tours for local people of similar sites elsewhere to demonstrate they had nothing to fear.

He said: "We understand the concerns of local people, and we will be looking in great detail at the traffic implications.

"But for the whole county we think the traffic effect will be positive.

"If people have concerns there is a wealth of information on what we propose on the county council website."

Funding such a large plant will be complex, involving a variety of government grants, and the council will draw up an outline business case by the end of the month.

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