How to report Smells or Discoloured Emissions
coming from the Newhurst incinerator

In February 2020 Biffa announced that they were ready to push the project forward together with Covanta (now named Encyclis), who would operate the plant. At this stage there is little opportunity to pursue the planning route and the Environment Agency have issued a Permit for Emissions. The task now it to mitigate the effects of the plant upon the community as far as possible. This includes close observance to emissions, following the latest research on airborne particulates (PM_2.5), independent testing air quality, following monitoring reports when it becomes active, observing traffic limits, meeting Health and Safety standards and other legislation.

More about the plant

I am grateful to the work of all those who have taken an interest in this and especially the recent work of LAQPG.

Hitachi Zosen Inova to build Energy from Waste Plant for Covanta, Biffa and the Investment Group. Company boasts "the new turnkey plant will be one of the most energy-efficient Energy from Waste facilities in the world at 33% efficiency". Covanta Construction letter

On 15th June 2020, Hitachi Zosen Inova HZI starts mobilisation activities at the Newhurst site, which will see initial ground preparation works commence. See also Press for Investors 11 Feb 2020

Discussion on problems with Incineraton on YouTube includimg Georgia Elliot-Smith leader of the legal challenge that incineration contravenes the Paris Agreement on carbon and Greenhouse gas emissions.

Planning Controls

The main planning permissions are found on on Leicestershire County Council's website. The main permit is in: 2016/1440/02. There is a full chronology of the planning applications below.
The Planning Conditions attached to the application are important.

This is the Section 106 Agreement of the above application.

The County Council's refusal went to Appeal. Reference: APP/M2460/A/11/2150748.
This link includes my representations, as your county councillor against the scheme heard at the Inquiry 8th Nov 2011. The Application was approved on Decision 28 June 2012.

A further scoping planning application 2014/PAEIASco/0091/L requested a revision of the plant replacing the original two process lines with a single process line increasing throughput from 300,000 to 350,000tpa. Besides increasing the capacity of the plant it is said to generate up to 33MW.

To check out high level waste planning policies: Leicestershire Minerals and Waste Local Plan 2019-2031.

To find related planning matters: Search planning applications

Are there any Conditions or S106 Measures that have yet to be met?

2007/1987/02
This permission relates to the initial development of an integrated waste management facility at Newhurst Quarry with the processing of rock at Longcliffe Quarry. This permission was granted by our Development Control and Regulatory Board (DCRB) on the 13th March 2008. You might see this permission referred to as the 2009 permission because the legal agreement connected to the planning permission wasn't signed until February 2009, and therefore, the decision notice was not issued until this time. If an application is deferred this usually means that the decision was neither approved or refused but delayed for some reason. Unfortunately, I am not sure of the circumstances surrounding any deferral, but I can confirm that the legal was agreement signed and a decision notice issued.
The 2007/1987/02 permission was implemented but no substantive operations ever took place. Biffa is now pursuing the Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) also known as Energy from Waste (EfW) or, simply, an incinerator. See the Committee Papers

2009/2497/02
This is the original application for Newhurst Energy Recovery Facility (ERF). This application was refused in a special meeting on the 15^th of October 2010. This can sometimes be called the 2012 permission because it was eventually granted permission at appeal. See the Committee Papers.

2011/1119/02
In 2011, Biffa submitted a revised scheme that was also refused by LCC. See the Committee Papers

However, the Newhurst Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) was eventually determined by Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State, on 28th June 2012. The reference for this is different as it wasn't determined by LCC. (appeal reference: APP/M2460/A/11/2150748).
2014/1440/02 This application amends the original Newhurst ERF application (2009/2497/02) that was granted on appeal by the Secretary of State. The decision notice for this application was issued on the 26_th March 2015. See the Committee papers.

2019/VOCEIA/0292/LCC This application was reported to committee on 21_st May 2020, where Members resolved to grant planning permission subject to the completion of an updated legal agreement. The S106 legal agreement is in the process of being finalised, so the decision notice has not yet been issued. This application has a different reference code because it creates a new planning permission. See the Committee Report.

All of the planning conditions are in the committee papers in the links above. All of the documents (location plan, drawings etc) that have been made public can be found by entering the reference code for each of the permissions that I have put above. The reference code needs to be exact otherwise it won't come up. If there has been any further information submitted after an application has been approved the application will be the very final search result (often there can be multiple pages of search results).

Wind direction and the pollutants carried on the wind are at the centre of health and air quality concerns. You can see air flows across Loughborough and Shepshed from the Newhurst site in real time from the map opposite. It based on AERMOD, developed by the US EPA, which is one of the most famous modelling systems for air pollution. It uses the regulatory default options of AERMOD. It takes account of the real terrain in the vicinity of the incinerator, current weather conditions as well as upper air data. It calculates how high the plume rises and how it disperses with distance. The display shows how much pollution reaches ground level at each point on the map. Double click on it to update it and view the detail in a new window. Emissions from the plant affecting the air we breathe is a key concern and these are specified in Condition 25 of Planning Permit 2014/1440/02. Noise Levels should not exceed 55dBA as stated in the planning conditions. The Environment Agency is responsible for monitoring the emissions on the plant. This is directed by a legal framework as follows.

The Legislative controls are broadly as follows (UK/England replacements for EU Directives pending). The Waste Incineration Directive was superseded by Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on Industrial Emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) - known as the Industrial Emissions Directive or IED.
This was implemented by the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations in 2013.
The emission limits largely stayed the same as previously. However, emission limits are now also subject to the best available techniques associated emissions limits (BAT-AELs) published in the Waste Incineration BAT Conclusions document - see New EU Environmental Standards Waste Incineration and following links.

BS EN 15267-3 specifies the performance criteria and test procedures for automated measuring systems in this case. The impacts of air emissions were re-assessed as part of the variation in 2019. This was done using Biffa's Air Emissions Risk Assessment prepared in May 2018.
This is the Environment Agency Permit: EPR TP3036KB for Newhurst Incinerator explains the factors the EA took account of in coming to their decision.
The operator's monitoring programme will have to meet the requirements set out in Schedule 3 of the Environmental Permit, and compliance will be assessed against this by the Environment Agency.

The assessment of odour is subjective as there is no prescribed standard that is applied. An authorised officer will use their experience and judgement to determine whether an odour is giving, or is likely to give, rise to pollution, and pollution includes offence to the senses and loss of amenity. a second opinion it sought when it isn't a clear breach of the permit or before serious action.

Other relevant sources:

Environment Agency Reporting Incineration Activities Guidance Note

Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) May 2019, a chapter presenting a comprehensive assessment of the air quality and health related issues pertinent to Leicestershire and make recommendations on actions.

Air Quality Management Areas and other air pollution policies by Charnwood's Environmental Health team.

Government's Air Quality Strategy as described by Leics County Council in June 2019.

Waste incineration facilities House of Commons Briefing Paper, Feb 2020.

At this stage, do we have sufficient base data? What do we need?
How can we gather more data and what is being gathered by CBC, LCC or EA?
What Emissions do Biffa/Encyclis say will be emitted, does it reflect the Permit?

Health Effects of Incineration Air pollution contributes to 40,000 deaths a year in the UK. The Government Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) recommends PM2.5 as the most satisfactory metric for quantitative assessments of the impact on mortality of long-term exposure to air pollution. According to JNSA Report (above), preventable mortality attributable to PM2.5 is, on average, the 3rd leading cause of death across the county with variation (5.3-5.9% of deaths) observed across the county. Particulate Matter (PM) is a generic term used to describe a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles of varying size, shape, and composition. Some particles are emitted directly (primary PM); others are formed in the atmosphere through complex chemical reactions (secondary PM). The composition of PM varies greatly and depends on many factors, such as geographical location, emission sources and weather See: Health effects of waste incinerators British Lung Foundation Air Quality tracker Is Particulate Matter (PM2.5) the main concern? PM2.5 is already cited in JNSA along the motorways, airport and working quarries; do we need to include that? What greenhouse gases will be released from the incineration?

The North West Leics DC (August 2020): Audit of Local Air Quality Management reported As concentrations of nitrogen dioxide reduce, the focus of air quality work in the UK is likely to turn to Particulate Matter (PM) which is less locally controllable, but is a more important metric in relation to health effects. Particulate matter is different from the gaseous pollutants in that it is not a clearly defined chemical compound. It can be expressed in a number of ways, by size, composition, origin or other metrics. PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 are the most commonly used units. (note: PM10, or course particles are particles that are less than 10 microns (µm) in diameter. PM_2.5, or fine particles, are particles that are less than 2.5 microns in diameter.)

In relation to PM, further collaborative work with LCC Public Health is likely, which could be undertaken at local authority level or collaboratively with other local authorities in Leicestershire. The work may involve assessing background concentrations of PM_2.5, or population weighted concentrations (note: One way of estimating exposure for the population as a whole), and implementing measures to both reduce exposure to PM and reduce overall concentrations of PM_2.5. .

In Leicestershire the District Councils are responsible for collecting household waste, recycling and composting. The County Council is responsible for treatment and disposal of household waste and also operates 'bring' sites called Household Recycling Sites to receive recycling and other waste. The objective to reduce greenhouse gases and climate change requires us to reuse rather than dispose, to recycle rather than incinerate and to use landfill as little as possible. This is called the waste hierarchy and it will be important to ensure incineration doesn't eat inti the recycling and reuse. This is particularly important for organic waste for which reduction and other treatments apply.

Current rates are

2019/20	Dry recycling	Composting
NW Leics	19%	27%
Hinckley	22%	21%
Blaby	23%	19%
Melton	24%	20%
Charnwood	25%	19%
Oadby & Wigston	26%	19%
Harborough	26%	21%
Leicestershire	24%	22%

In terms of weight recorded in 2018/19 Leicestershire received:
110,163 tonnes Landfilled
70,730 tonnes Incinerated
141,519 tonnes Recycled or Composted
6,011 tonnes Other treatment

Leics County Council is currently engaged in a procurement for managing 106,000 tonnes of residual waste per annum to commence from 2023 or earlier until at least 2031.

The EU policy known as the Circular Economy Package has introduced a common target to reach 65% recycling rates for municipal waste and a binding target to reduce landfilled municipal waste to a maximum of 10%. Unfortunately the deadline is as late as 2035.
The UK Government has confirmed that a selection of targets from the Circular Economy Package will be transposed into Government targets.

An EU target for recycling 70% of packaging waste by 2030 was introduced as part of the Circular Economy Package. According to edie, Recycling levels have languished in England for several years, with the latest statistics showing that the country is currently not on track to achieve its recycling target of 50% by 2020.

What measures are in progress to increase recycling from Leicestershire Districts, Boroughs and County.?

The issues are likely to be Road Traffic Management, Quality and character of the fuel (ie composition of waste input) and generation of power output.

In terms of furnace temperature, the operator has to be able to demonstrate that the combustion conditions within the furnace maintain the gas temperature above 850 deg-C for at least 2 seconds under different load conditions. Pre-operational condition PO5 requires modelling work to be undertaken and submitted to us to show that in theory the design can achieve these requirements. Pre-op condition PO6 requires the operator to propose a methodology to verify it. Improvement condition IC6 requires the operator to undertake testing to the agreed methodology.
Many other conditions are tabled in: Annex 1: Appication of Chapter IV of the Industrial Emissions Directive. See: A HREF="https://www.gov.uk/government/publ.ications/le12-9bu-biffa-waste-services-limited-environmental-permit-issued" target="_blank"> Environment Agency Permit: EPR TP3036KB

What guarantees can HZI give that the bad experiences in Dublin and Sinfin won't be repeated?

The UK Environment Bill.

This currently going through Parliament and sets out four priority areas: air quality, waste and resource efficiency, water and nature. It sets out a framework for standards on key pollutants. The new standards on air quality along with those on the other three priority areas will be set in October 2022. It will also amend the Environmental Protection Act with regards to providing recycling and food waste collection.
Clause 2 would currently require the Secretary of State to set legally binding air quality targets including the annual mean level of fine particulate matter PM_2.5 in ambient air.
Clause 81 of the environment bill currently gives the Secretary of State powers to amend targets for the chemical status of our water, either by altering the targets or changing the rules by which they are measured.
There is to be a watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), appointed by the Secretary of State to report on progress, rather like the Climate Change Committee. will bring further changes to the regulation of incineration and other industrial processes.

Devolved administrations will also be looking at standards in their juisdictions, such as A Circular Economy Strategy from Welsh Government

See Use of Carbon Capture and StorageCarbon emissions on Latest Carbon Capture Technology

What targets will be set for Particulates and other pollutants by October 2022?

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Last updated August 2023