Council will consider incinerator

by Paul Reoch, Dundee Courier, Friday 7 October 2011 (click here for shortened online version)

(Return to main Binn Farm page)

CONTROVERSIAL PLANS to build a gasification incinerator with a 55m stack will be heard by Perth and Kinross Council this month.

The proposals, submitted by SITA UK, would see the energy-from-waste gasification facility and associated infrastructure and landscaping at Binn Farm.

SITA UK claims the site would manage 60,000 tonnes of household waste per year.

In January TEG Environmental was fined £14,000 after admitting environmental breaches at Binn Farm.

It was charged with polluting, breaching odour regulations and allowing leachate to escape.

Binn Farm is 8km south-east of Perth and connected to the town by the A912.

It contains a non-hazardous SITA landfill site, a commercial and industrial waste management business operated by Binn Skips, a materials recycling facility and an in-vessel composting facility operated by TEG.

Planning permission was granted in June 1993 for a landfill site with deposition of waste materials at Binn Farm.
In 1995, planning permission was granted for amendments to the 1993 consent.

The consent was the subject of a number of conditions, one of which required the tipping of waste material to cease by June 30, 2009.

In 1996 and 1997 there were a number of minor permissions and notifications issued.

However, the next significant planning permission was granted in December 2000, which related to the modification of the existing landfill.

Then in June 2001, planning permission was given for a landfill gas-powered electricity-generating station, located adjacent to the landfill site.

In April 2009 planning permission was granted for the formation of a temporary rocks/soils stockpiling area adjacent to the existing landfill site.

SITA UK claims it will manage 60,000 tonnes of household waste per year at Binn Farm.

It will use state-of-the-art technology and convert the waste into energy, but not through burning it.

If given the green light it will replace the planned incinerator which received planning permission in September 2007.

Neighbouring residents have raised concerns to the proposals with several letters of objection.

An environmental statement prepared by AXIS for SITA UK states that no sensitive ecological receptors have been identified of particular risk of impacts from noise or human disturbance.

The statement said: "There is one protected species, badger, in the vicinity of the site and the great crested newts are located two kilometres away from the site boundary.

"Neither is predicted to be affected by the proposed development.

"The presence of a stand of Japanese knotweed is an important consideration.

"Ecological enhancement measures will create new woodland along the Binn Burn corridor, create a new wetland habitat and an area of species-rich grassland."

However, the statement warned that the "most significant" source of emissions will be the gasification stack.

It said: "The emissions from the stack will be subject to continuous monitoring, analysis and control.

"The approach taken in the UK and Europe is to minimise the emissions of pollutants in the flue gas to low levels and then use a sufficiently high stack to disperse these emissions."

The plans will be assessed by Perth and Kinross Council's development control committee on October 19.