Second incinerator plan discussed

Surrey puts most of its 600,000 tonnes of waste into landfill

Plans for a second energy-from-waste incinerator in Surrey have been adopted by the county council executive.

A planning bid for a first EfW plant at Capel, to take 110,000 tonnes of waste yearly, had already been submitted.

But the plans agreed on Tuesday were for a second plant at Longcross, to take a further 160,000 tonnes of waste.

Runnymede council opposed the plan because Longcross is a greenfield site. The county council said a report gave Capel as the only non-greenbelt option.

Councillor John Furey, leader of Runnymede council said: "The waste plan identifies incineration and use of greenfield sites as virtually a last resort in the waste hierarchy and yet this is precisely what is now being planned."

But a Surrey County Council spokesman said a planning inspector's report in December had identified possible sites for EfW plants, and Capel was the only option that was not in the greenbelt.

'Environmentally sound'

He also said Longcross was recommended because other sites had been judged as too small, or too risky to endangered wildlife.

But he said if the executive approved the Longcross plan, the council's waste contractor Sita would still have to put in a planning application and go through the planning process.

The county council was also seeking to increase the proportion of recycling and composting to 50% by 2020, and to 60% by 2025, he added.

He said Surrey put most of its 600,000 tonnes of household waste into landfill sites each year, and the council wanted 270,000 tonnes to be processed with "environmentally sound" EfW technology by 2012.