Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has said an application from the operators of the Barry Biomass facility to increase the capacity of the plant is now deemed as “withdrawn”.
Aviva Investors said in January that the plant is undergoing final tests and will be operational by the end of 2020
NRW says this is because the applicant failed to meet a deadline to provide further information for the application, which also included a request to accept a wider range of material.
The Barry Biomass facility has a permit to treat 80,000 tonnes a year of waste wood, and is financed by Aviva Investors. It is operated by JM Envirofuels (Barry) Ltd, part of the Jack Moody Group.
Earlier this year, Aviva said the much-delayed plant is “due to come online in 2020” and is undergoing final tests (see letsrecycle.com story).
Application
JM Envirofuels applied in July 2019 to increase the capacity of the plant from 80,000 tonnes per year to 130,000 tonnes, but the application was not considered “duly made” by NRW until September.
The application also included proposals to double the storage limits to 20,000 tonnes at any one time and accept other types of non-hazardous household, commercial and industrial waste – including metal, glass and plasterboard.
The proposal also included accepting and storing ash produced by energy from waste facilities.
Information
NRW stated that following its own technical assessment of the application and consideration of the responses to a public consultation at the beginning of the year, it issued a notice to JM Envirofuels in April 2020 to ask for additional information in relation to “many aspects” of its proposed plans.
Following a request from the applicant, NRW says it agreed to extend the deadline for the submission of the additional information to 17 July.
NRW added that the applicant “did not provide the information by the deadline and as a result NRW has deemed the application to have been withdrawn”.
“JM Envirofuels (Barry) Ltd has the right to appeal NRW’s decision via Welsh Ministers and must be made by 13 August 2020,” NRW said in a statement.
‘Significantly different’
Caroline Drayton, operations manager for NRW, said: “We ensure that every application we receive is thoroughly assessed to protect nearby communities and the environment.
“The company’s plan was significantly different to what it currently has a permit for”
“The company’s plan was significantly different to what it currently has a permit for. Following our assessment of the application and responses we received through the consultation, it was clear that further detail was needed to show how the activities would comply with the regulations.
“The advice we received from specialist organisations together with the information we received from local people through our consultation was incredibly valuable to us. We thank the people who took the time to get involved.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
