GovWire

Viridor South London Ltd has applied to the Environment Agency to vary the current operational permit at their energy recovery facility at Beddington Lane, in Sutton.

The site has a two-stream energy recovery facility in operation and an adjacent waste transfer station. The operators applied for a permit variation last year to allow increased capacity of the energy recovery facility, along with other operational adjustments and the consolidation of two separate environmental permits.

Following its review of comments received from the public consultation in November-December 2022, the Environment Agency is minded to issue the permit variation. However, before making the final decision in whether to grant the permit or not, there will be one more round of public consultation.

If granted, the environmental permit variation will allow Viridor to:

• Increase the processing capacity of the energy recovery facility to 382,286 tonnes per annum. An increase of 34,864 tonnes;
• Update the status of all pre-operational and improvement conditions in the permit;
• Amend all of the emission point locations listed in the environmental permit for discharges to surface water and sewerage, for both the energy recovery facility and waste transfer station. Incorporate an additional emissions point for shredder emissions at the waste transfer station;
• Consolidate permits for the waste transfer station and the energy recovery facility into a single environmental permit;
• Include additional European Waste Catalogue (EWC) codes for the operation of the waste transfer station. These are for temporary storage and transfer only of hazardous and clinical wastes. These materials are not to be processed in the energy recovery facility.
  N.B. EWC codes classify common types of waste and how they should be treated.

The Environment Agency is inviting views of the public and organisations on the proposed permit variation.

The consultation is open for 6-weeks, from Friday 21 July until Friday 1 September 2023.

Further information on the permit application and details of how to take part in the consultation can be found at: https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/psc/cr0-4td-viridor-south-london-ltd/, available from 21 July.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said:

An environmental permit sets out stringent conditions that all waste sites must adhere to. We will not issue an environmental permit for a site if we consider that activities taking place will cause significant pollution to the environment or harm to human health.

Public consultation lets people and organisations take part in our decision making. We welcome specifically, comments on environmental and health issues and where people have particular local knowledge. We take all relevant comments into account when making our decisions.

When making permit decisions, we use information on the potential environmental and human health impacts of the activity.

In deciding whether or not to issue the permit, the Environment Agency will take into account all relevant considerations and legal requirements.

For further information, please e-mail KSLE@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Follow us on Twitter at @EnvAgencySE

• The previous consultation that ran between 10 November and 23 December 2022.
• Comments received from the last consultation have been addressed in the draft decision document, which can be found on the consultation page at: https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/psc/cr0-4td-viridor-south-london-ltd/, available from 21 July.
• This consultation is specifically to cover issues relating to environmental pollution or public health from the facility. It does not cover issues such as the impact on traffic or planning matters that are the remit of the local authority.
• Following this consultation, a final decision is likely to take several months, depending on the number of responses received. The decision will be publicised to stakeholders directly and to the public through a public notice, press releases, social media and on the GOV.UK website.
• Further information on when and how the Environment Agency consults on permit applications and standard rules for environmental permits, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-permits-when
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