Virginia Water Incinerator Scrapped.
Surrey County Council has announced it has scrapped its plans for an Energy from Waste incinerator in Runnymede. A massive waste burning incinerator capable of burning 160,000 tonnes of household waste per year had been earmarked for land near Trumps Farm, Longcross, as part of the County Council's waste plan.
Andrew Povey announced in a meeting at the council chambers in Kingston, that plans for the incinerator and a similar one at Capel, near Gatwick Airport, had been dropped in favour of increased household recycling schemes and a proposed £50million Eco Park near Shepperton. He said: "I am very pleased to announce that we are scrapping plans for any EfW incinerators in Surrey. Today I will be instructing that the planning applications for incinerators at Capel and Trumps Farm be withdrawn. "With our help, and that of our partners, our residents are now doing so well at producing less waste and recycling more that we are in a position to look at alternative methods of dealing with our waste and saving both money and our countryside."
Dr Povey added that diverting waste away from landfill sites significantly before 2013 was a priority as increasing landfill taxation is costing the council around £13million per annum at present.
The council's new approach to waste will concentrate on reducing the amount of waste Surrey produces, encouraging people to reuse things where they can and recycle as much as possible after that. The new plans will lead to a reduction in the amount of household waste dealt with every year by 35,000 tonnes, enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall 14 times.
A new Eco Park has also been propose for the existing waste disposal site at Charlton Lane, Shepperton. This site will use a gasifier and anaerobic digester as alternatives to burning. At £50million the park will cost a fraction of the proposed incinerators, as well as having more sympathetic architecture.
The news had been welcomed by anti-incinerator campaigners including Constantin Swartz, of Residents Against Incineration, who have had always advocated a move away from incineration as a waste management solution in Surrey.
He said: "It's tremendous news. From what I have heard, on the face of it it's great news to hear about the move away from incineration, which is something we have been after since day one.
"Especially given the climate change talks in Copenhagen at the moment, it's great timing too.
"The last three or four years we have only received bad news about the incinerators at Christmas, so it makes up for that. And we look forward to seeing and reviewing the new plans."
