The old plant and chimney of the incinerator near Chineham, Basingstoke, is coming down. As bulldozers move into the site, Councillor Dudley Keep, Chairman of Hampshire County Council's Planning Committee has made a nostalgic visit to start the process of demolition, 30 years after he marked the opening with the unveiling of a plaque.

Photo shows Keith Riley, Managing Director of Hampshire Waste Services, with Councillor Dudley Keep at the Chineham site.

The clear up operation by contractors CNIM is expected to take up to three months, but the tall chimney stack is not coming down in a spectacular bang. Instead it will be taken down bit by bit.

Keith Riley, Managing Director of Hampshire Waste Services - the company that closed the incinerator in 1996 when it no longer met stringent new European legislation on emissions control - said the plant had served the area well. It was one of four incinerators in the county that Hampshire Waste took over from Hampshire County Council in 1993 when waste disposal moved from the public to the private sector under competitive tendering.

Said Mr Riley, "Naturally there will those who will be pleased to see the demolition of the old plant but we all need to remember the huge contribution it has made in the disposal of people's waste over the last 27 years."

In its lifetime the Chineham plant processed 1.2 million tonnes of waste, in the order of 45,000 tonnes a year.

Hampshire Waste has now been granted permission to build the first of its new generation energy recovery incinerators on the site to serve the waste disposal needs of North Hampshire. More modest in size than the two planned for the south of the county, it will be able to cope with 90,000 tonnes of waste a year and will generate 7 megawatts of electricity. This will be supplied to the local grid providing enough power for 7000 homes.

Its size has been determined by the need to cope with the increasing amount of waste being generated, after allowing for at least 40% to be recycled. Hampshire is already nearing its 25% recycling target - which although three times the national average, still has a long way to go to reach the county's long term target.

To assist the process, Rushmoor, Hart and Basingstoke & Deane, the districts to be served by the new energy from waste incinerator, are providing almost all households with a kerbside collection of dry recyclable items, including paper, cans and plastic bottles.

The north is also served by its own wholesale composting site at Little Bushywarren Copse, Basingstoke, which was expanded last year to cope with 120 tonnes a day of green garden waste.

This integrated approach to the disposal of waste is operated by Hampshire Waste, part of the Onyx Group, under a 25 year contract known as Project Integra. The Project Integra partners who include Hampshire County Council, the 11 district councils, the two unitary authorities of Southampton and Portsmouth, and private waste contractor Hampshire Waste, were this year awarded Beacon status by the Government, marking them out as a centre of excellence in waste management.

5 June 2000

For further information contact Keith Riley, Managing Director or Jeannette Camilleri, Communications Officer at Hampshire Waste Services, Poles Lane, Otterbourne, Winchester, SO21 2EA or call 01962 764000.

Site Contents © 2000 Project Integra
Contents correct at date of publication
Web Design by Alchemy Digital