Hampshire Waste Services, the private waste recycling and disposal contractor, has lodged its planning application (on Tuesday 20 June) for the building of a 165,000 tonnes energy recovery incinerator on the waterside near Marchwood, Southampton. In addition to serving the waste disposal needs of South West Hampshire, it will have the capability of generating in excess of 14 MW of electricity from the process. Supplied to the grid, this will power more than 14,000 local homes.

The site, in an industrial area at Marchwood Industrial Park, has been identified in the Minerals and Waste Local Plan as suitable for the development of an integrated waste processing facility. It has been selected following the consideration of 87 alternative sites, six of which were studied in detail.

The plans will now come before Hampshire County Council's Planning and Transportation committee and are expected to be determined this winter. Local people will be given the chance to see the proposals at mobile exhibitions to be mounted locally during July as well as at District and County Council offices and local libraries.

The incinerator, which is innovative in its design, is to be clad in aluminium. The 36 metre high hemispherical structure is proposed to house all the equipment of the plant under its 110 metre diameter, with two chimneys rising from its centre to a height of 65 metres. It is finished with a low level skirt of windows, which curve around the base.

The design was overwhelmingly supported by a contact group of local people and has also received endorsement from local councillors.

Local concerns have been addressed in an Environmental Statement - which forms a major part of the planning application - and includes the results of specialist studies covering traffic issues, air quality, health, ecology, noise and visual impact. In all cases, the experts consider that the plant has acceptable environmental impact and represents no significant risk to human health.

Hampshire Waste has confirmed it will utilise the best available technology in the clean up process, so that the gasses from the combustion process pass through gas scrubbers and filters to produce significantly cleaner exhaust emissions than previously experienced in the county. This will be carried out to stringent EU standards currently in draft.

Hampshire Waste is proposing three new generation energy recovery incinerators in the county. It has already been granted permission to build the first near Basingstoke to serve the waste disposal needs of North Hampshire and is appealing the refusal of its plans for another plant in Portsmouth.

The size of each plant has been determined by the need to cope with the increasing amount of waste being generated, after allowing for Hampshire's long term recycling target of 40%. Through the use of doorstep collections of recyclable items, bottle banks and a network of 26 Household Waste Recycling Centres, Hampshire is already nearing its 2000 recycling target of 25%.

This integrated approach to the recycling and 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 are 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, highlighting them as a centre of excellence in waste management.

For information on the exhibitions to be staged locally in the coming months, or for literature, call the Hampshire Waste information help line on 01962 714874.

19 June 2000

For further information contact John Collis, Project Director at Hampshire Waste Services on 01962 764000.

Artist’s impressions of the hemispherical structure of the energy recovery incinerator proposed by Hampshire Waste Services on the Marchwood Industrial Park near Southampton.  These are currently not available on this web site, but contact above for copies.

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