Eco Sustainable Solution’s approved plans for incinerator at Chapel Lane, Parley, unlikely to go ahead, energy expert Nick Roberts tells public inquiry

A POWER generating waste incinerator at Parley is unlikely to be built despite having planning approval, according to an energy expert.

Plans by Eco Sustainable Solutions to build an “energy recovery facility” at Chapel Lane in Parley were approved by BCP Council last year, despite more than 700 people registering their opposition to the scheme.

At a recent public inquiry into Portland’s waste-to-energy facility, Nick Roberts – a consultant who specialises in major developments for energy and waste – said he doubts an incinerator will ever be built at the site.

He said if the incinerator was built – along with a similar one at Canford Magna – they would be insufficient to deal with the area’s waste output.

He predicted that even with the new incinerators, Dorset and BCP councils would still have to export waste to other counties or overseas to be dealt with – or send it to landfill.

Mr Roberts said Portland’s Powerfuel plant is a logical solution for the area’s waste that helps save ‘waste miles’ and protects South East Dorset’s greenbelt.

In contrast, he claimed Dorset and BCP councils, who work together on waste disposal, have “no self-sufficiency whatsoever for residual waste” and are “failing to meet spatial objectives completely”.

Mr Roberts said that if two incinerators – similar to Portland’s but smaller – were built at Parley and Canford, they would not have the capacity to deal with residual waste from the two council areas.

He set out a series of technical and planning reasons why the incinerators would not be viable, including planning constraints caused by Parley’s greenbelt, the limited size of both sites and their proximity to sites of special scientific interest, and a possible conflict with Bournemouth Airport’s flight paths if higher chimneys are needed.

Mr Roberts said Portland has the advantage of having the land to fit carbon capture technology, which he said legislation is likely to demand in the future, while Parley and Canford were too small to take similar equipment.

He added that in the case of both Parley and Canford the relatively small sites would not be able to take the carbon capture technology and, even if they could squeeze it in, there would not be enough space on either site for the annual ‘lay down’ which involves shutting the plant for about four weeks.

He said that if Canford’s incinerator was given planning approval with a capacity of 25,000 tonnes per year – even with Parley’s 50,000 tonnes added to the total – it was a long way short of the 260,000 tonnes of residual waste suitable for combustion that Dorset and BCP needed to deal with.

The A&T has contacted Eco Sustainable Solutions for comment.