Almost two years after plans were announced to build an incinerator at the top of the Hightown Road an application has been submitted to operate the facility.
The company behind the project, the Becon Consortium submitted the application to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) on Monday (November 18).
The granting of the permit is critical to the project as without it, the company would be unable to operate any facility should planning permission be granted.
Project Director with Becon Ian Smith described this stage as “very important” to their plans to develop the quarter of a billion pound burner – something locals and all political parties have united to oppose.
“This IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) permit application is a very important phase of the overall project designed to ensure that the state of the art facilities we are proposing meet all the stringent environmental requirements for a project of this nature,” he said. “Once operational, people can be reassured that the facilities will operate safely, meeting all necessary environmental regulations and that they will be rigorously monitored by the NI Environment Agency to ensure it operates within the terms of the Environmental Permit.”
Arc21, the umbrella group of local councils that have tasked Becon with developing the project, are being forced to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and feel an incinerator is the best way forward.
However local people and politicians say that the Boghill Road site is unsuitable, given the number of residential properties in the area and the fact that lorries will be on the roads 24 hours a day to deliver waste to the burner.
Helen Callaghan from NoArc21 said the latest developments would be discussed at a public meeting to be held next month.
“This will be on the agenda at a public meeting that has been organised on December 1. There is total opposition to this development and it is even more critical that it is not built now that developers have announced plans to build more houses in the area in Blackrock. We want as many people as possible to turn out to voice their opposition to the incinerator.”
The meeting will be held on Monday, December 1 in the Academy Sports Club, Mallusk at 8pm. All are welcome to attend.
