Representation by Paul Richard Thorogood
- Date submitted
- 6 February 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am the Essex county councillor for the Braintree Eastern division and the Rivenhall Airfield IWMF site sits on the boundary of my division together with the Witham North division. On the face of it, the application to increase the electricity output to 50MW+ while not increasing the amount of waste that is incinerated seems a positive measure, many of the residents that I represent do have two main concerns and they are 1. If the DCO is granted and the site becomes a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) will the decision-making process about any future planning applications relating to this site be taken out of the hands of Essex County Council and be decided by government departments? 2. The IWMF currently has permission to process 850,000 tonnes of waste per year but only permission to incinerate 595,000 tonnes. If the DCO is granted will Indaver be able to divert some or all of that unused tonnage (previously designated for paper pulping, bio food waste, recycling) to incineration. And lastly, I would like to apply for an DCO NSIP grant to provide air quality monitoring equipment to measure the ambient air quality in the communities within 3-5km of the incinerator site, including Coggeshall, Kelvedon, Feering, Silver End, Stisted, Bradwell, north Witham and east Braintree. I have spoken to a university who would be happy to process the data and the air quality monitoring equipment would cost in the region of £50-80k; I hope that is something that can be considered because I think it is very important that local communities can assured that the ambient output from the inicinerator is safe. Thank you