EA 'minded to accept' incinerator plans

The incinerator could burn up to 450,000 tonnes of waste a year

The Environment Agency (EA) has said it is "minded to" to accept proposals for a controversial waste incinerator.

Campaigners have previously claimed the Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility (TVERF), which would be built at Teesworks in Grangetown, Redcar, would be "unfair and dangerous".

Seven local authorities across north-east England would use the facility, burning up to 450,000 tonnes of waste per year, to generate energy, according to plans.

The EA has now launched a second consultation over the plans. Developer Viridor declined to comment.

The body held its first consultation over whether or not to grant an environmental permit to the incinerator late last year.

It said it was now launching a second consultation because it could not "find any reason to refuse" the application, but was "yet to make a final decision".

EA official Gary Wallace said the organisation was keen to hear people's views on the incinerator and that it would make its final decision following the consultation.

Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility will take waste from seven councils

The incinerator would take waste from homes in Newcastle, Durham, Darlington, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, as well as Stockton and Redcar and Cleveland council areas.

Newcastle City Council's director of operations and regulatory services previously said there were no "affordable alternative" to the plans.

Paul Foster, from Stop Incineration North East, said the group planned to lodge more objections with the EA over the incinerator.

The group protested the plans last month, arguing that people's waste should be recycled rather than burned.

Project partners from TVERF previously said facilities like the planned Energy from Waste (EfW) incinerator were a "reliable and safe technology" which had been subject to "intense regulatory and academic scrutiny over decades of operation".

"The project represents the safest, most reliable and most sustainable way to manage our region's residual waste," they said.

The local authorities involved in the scheme have been approached for comment.