How do people feel a waste plant will affect their area?

Paul Hayden moved from London to Essex for better air quality, but understands the need for the removal of waste

Fifteen years after first gaining planning approval the Rivenhall Incinerator, near Witham, Essex, will begin burning almost 600,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste annually and generate electricity in the process.

Last summer, the firm Indaver, which runs the plant, received a seven-year contract worth £1bn to burn all waste from the county.

The first truckload of refuse arrived at the incinerator on 21 July, but James Abbott, a Green councillor at Braintree District Council, said there will be more than 400 heavy-goods vehicle movements per day.

What do the people living in nearby villages think about the incinerator's impact on the area?

'I moved from London because of pollution'

Construction at the site began in 2021 after Essex County Council approved plans in 2010

Paul Hayden, 65, from Silver End, Essex, said: "Well it has to be done, we need the power, we need to get rid of the rubbish.

"I moved from London to here because I'm asthmatic, and because of the pollution in London.

"I was in hospital twice, maybe three times a year. I've been [in Silver End] for 25 years and I've only been in hospital once.

"We have to make sure that it's definitely emitting clean air," he said.

Electrical engineer Craig Lewis, 37, from Silver End, said: "[The waste has] got to go somewhere and I fully understand that - that's just part of life.

"It's not great, but where else do you put it? That's my view on it personally.

"[However] the infrastructure is never thought about when we're building these things... [it's] 'oh we'll worry about that after'."

John Baldry, from Silver End, said "You never know where it's going to go, where the plumes are going to drift.

"Over here, over Coggeshall, Kelvedon, all sorts of places - it's not that brilliant.

"The roads can't cope," he added, "the A120 is like a car park in the mornings anyway it's just so busy."

'Fumes are going to blow over'

Doug Fields says he hopes he does not get knocked off his bike with increased traffic

Doug Fields, 77, from Silver End, has seen the site when cycling past on his bicycle, and hoped the extra traffic will not make the roads unsafe.

"I hope I don't get knocked off my bike, but I'll come back to you if I do," he joked.

"I reckon it's gonna be fun and games when they do start burning, because I suspect it's going to blow all over here, because I believe they've cut the height of the chimney down.

"Just watch this space, see what happens."

Samantha Redmond, 52, who works for Silver End Parish Council, said: "Honestly, [I'm] not very impressed.

"They really didn't pick the best location because they're trying to bring the trucks through the village... we're not meant to take those trucks down here.

"It's just a joke," she said.

Recycling facilities

Construction for the waste plant began in 2021 and its original designs for the incinerator had a chimney height of 58m (190ft) and recycling facilities.

In 2020 the Environment Agency approved a re-application to reduce the plant's chimney height from 58m to 35m (114ft), which had been rejected in 2016, after it said it was confident other measures were being taken to reduce emissions.

Essex County Council is currently investigating whether permissions had been breached by Indaver.

Indaver told the BBC the demand for waste processing was not high enough to warrant constructing the number of recycling facilities in the original design, adding that a council investigation was a typical part of the process at the end of projects.

The first trucks of rubbish arrived at the waste plant on 21 July

Abbott, a Green councillor, said: "We have been right royally played by the developers... for decades about this site."

The plant's original plans also included an 85,000-tonne capacity anaerobic digestion plant, where microbes break down waste into renewable energy.

Abbott said this facility was missing from the final site.

John Ahern, the business development director at Indaver, denied Abbott's claims about failing to fulfil recycling duties alongside the incinerator.

"We're not allowed to 'royally play' anybody," he said.

"Suitable waste for recycling has to be available. There are a large number of recycling plants already in the UK... but some of them are closing because there isn't enough suitable waste for them, and we don't like to build plants that will then just sit there with nothing to do.

"So as soon as there is demand for it, we'll do it."

Mr Ahern responded: "In the 20 years that the plant has been developed, a new digestion plant has been built in Halsted. So the need for that type of waste is already served."

He added: "The benefit of [the incinerator] to the people of Essex is that, from next week on, your waste will no longer have to go to landfill, and that's a huge environmental progress for the county."