Work starts on controversial town incinerator

The waste incinerator will be built in an industrial area of Wisbech

Preparatory construction work has begun on a new waste incinerator plant.

The facility, set to be built on the Algores Way industrial estate in Wisbech, near the Cambridgeshire-Norfolk border, was granted development consent in February last year, and an environmental permit in May.

Applicant MVV Environment said the £300m plant would recover energy in the form of electricity and steam from more than half-a-million tonnes of non-recyclable household, commercial and industrial waste each year.

Campaigners have long opposed the plans and Fenland District Council challenged the decision to give consent to the project but it was turned down last summer.

There had been local opposition to the proposed incinerator in Wisbech, near the Cambridgeshire-Norfolk border

MVV's managing director, Paul Carey, said: "After several years of development we are starting our Medworth project with design and preparatory works.

"These include vegetation clearance and preparatory construction work in the next few months whilst, in parallel, satisfying the relevant planning conditions."

The company said it would take about three years to complete construction at the site and it would employ up to 700 people.