Veteran campaigner Barry Robinson has received the following clarification from the Environment Agency (EA) regarding the quashing of the PPC Permit for the proposed Newhaven incinerator and the revoking of the Permit for the proposed Hull incinerator:
There was a judicial review of a PPC Permit for an incinerator at Newhaven. This resulted in the original Permit issued by us being quashed by consent. The Agency agreed to the quashing because its decision document did not set out the Agency’s reasoning on CO2 emissions as fully as it could have done. The effect of the quashing was that the original application remained outstanding and had to be finally determined.
The original Permit for the Saltend Incinerator raised the same issue that had given rise to the judicial review of the Newhaven Permit. Rather than wait for a legal challenge on the Saltend decision, we decided to revoke the Saltend Permit and ask the applicant to reapply. A new application was necessary as the Saltend permit was revoked rather than quashed.
The applicant reapplied under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007. The technical and environmental standards that the applicant needed to demonstrate were essentially the same, i.e. compliance with the requirements of the IPPC and WID Directives, however additional information was included in the application to address the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on the environment and forms part of the BAT assessment provided.
The application has to be assessed to ensure that it complies with all necessary regulatory legislation and this information will be documented in our draft decision. A crucial part of the process is consultation of our draft decision and at this stage we will take into account any comments we receive before making our final decision.