Northwich

Location: Griffiths Road, Lostock Gralam, Northwich, CW9

Capacity: 600,000 tonnes per annum

Developer: Tata Group (Brunner Mond)

What’s the plan? Brunner Mond plans to build and operate an incinerator on the former Brunner Mond power station. The plant will be capable of handling up to 600,000 tonnes of waste. A primary school lies within half a mile and residential housing lies within 500 metres of the site. The incinerator will be so large that it bypasses the usual local authority route, going straight to central government, to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Read more about the planning process here. You can get an idea of the scale of the planned incinerator from this diagram. This picture will also give you an idea of what a 600 tonne incinerator looks like.

Latest update: Brunner Mond submitted its planning application on 28 February 2010. The people of Northwich originally had until 5 May to write letters or emails to DECC, objecting to the incinerator. However, following a complaint by CHAIN that the press advertisements published by TATA/Brunner Mond regarding their planning application were not in compliance with the statutory regulations, DECC confirmed that the ads will be corrected and republished. This meant that the public consultation process was extended to the end of October 2010.  Around 4,000 individual letters were sent to DECC.

Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Strategic Planning Committee met on 10 February 2011 in Winsford to decide whether to oppose this application to build a massive incinerator in Lostock, Northwich.  Despite the timing and location of the meeting, over 200 local residents filled the venue to hear the debate. Many speakers, including CHAIN’s chairman, local councillors, parish and town councillors, SID and most importantly local residents spoke passionately against the application.  They urged the committee to follow their planning officers’ recommendation and oppose the plan primarily on grounds that the proposal was contrary to the Cheshire Waste Strategy and there was no over-riding need for the incinterator in waste management terms.

The strategic planning committee voted to oppose the application.  As a result of the Council’s opposition to this application, the Secretary of State (SoS) for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will be obliged to call a mandatory public inquiry, prior to making the final decision on whether to approve this case or not.

A massive thank you to all who spoke so strongly at the meeting on behalf of everyone opposing this application and for the excellent turnout of local people.  This ensured the committee knew the true strength of public feeling against this plan.  We now await further announcements on taking this case to the next stage, and will publish details here as soon as we   have them.

We need to be alert for reactions from Brunner Mond/E-On.  They had submitted late information to the Strategic Planning Committee claiming that the Council’s officials were wrong to treat the proposed plant as a waste incinerator.  Brunner Mond/E-On claimed it should be treated as a renewable energy plan.  The Strategic Planning Committee rejected this.  Will Brunner Mond/E-On be back with further arguments on this matter?

A webcast of the Strategic Planning Committee meeting (held on 10 Feb 2011) is now available on the Cheshire West and Chester Council website.

How to object: The public consultation period has now closed.  We must now await an annoucement from the Department of Energy and Climate Change regarding a Public Inquiry.

Tell Brunner Mond what you think of their plan by sending an email to sustainable.energy@brunnermond.com

Lobby your councillors: we urge you to contact your councillor - ask them whether they are going to support the people of Northwich against the incinerator: Click here to find their contact details.