Council says it's using 'any and all legal avenues' to fight £300m Wisbech incinerator proposals

Fenland District Council (FDC) has renewed its opposition to plans for building a waste-to-energy incinerator in Wisbech.

The council says that it “fundamentally opposes this incinerator application” and that it’s using “any and all legal avenues” to fight it.

FDC has long been opposed to the proposals, brought by MVV Environment Ltd, which would see hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste burnt at an industrial estate on the outskirts of Wisbech and converted into energy for local businesses.

The company said in response to FDC that it believes the “case for approving our application is robust” and that it’s “looking forward to a positive decision”.

That decision is now out of both FDC and MVV Environment’s hands; due to the scale of the £300m project, it’s currently being looked at by Government.

The Planning Inspectorate, a Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) agency, has until 21st November this year to make a recommendation on whether to approve the application, which they will make to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

She will then make a final decision by 21st February next year.

Currently in the role is cabinet new-comer Claire Coutinho, the Conservative MP for East Surrey, who replaced the outgoing Grant Shapps just this week.

It will be when she makes her decision that MVV Environment, as well as the public, will learn the future of the Wisbech incinerator project; the Planning Inspectorate’s earlier recommendation will not be publicly shared.

If approved, the incinerator would be built at the the Algores Way Industrial Estate near the A47.

It would work by converting around half a million tonnes of non-recyclable waste, otherwise destined for landfill, into other forms of energy, such as electricity and steam, each year.

FDC is one of four local authorities which have been involved in the planning process for the proposal, first put forward in 2019.

The others are Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) – as Fenland’s higher tier authority – as well as the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West and its higher tier authority, Norfolk County Council, due to its proximity to the Cambridgeshire-Norfolk border.

CCC councillors have also previously opposed the plans, voting in favour of a motion signalling a lack of support in July 2020.