Saturday 6th March
Millbrook Village Hall 10am – 6pm
Friday 12th March
Marston Moretaine Village Hall 10am – 6pm
Saturday 13th March
Houghton Conquest Village Hall 10am – 5pm
Sunday 14th March
Parkside Hall, Ampthill 10am – 6pm
Saturday 20th March
Stewartby Village Hall 10am – 6pm
Covanta Energy is proposing to build an Energy from Waste (EfW) and Materials Recovery Facility at Rookery South Pit near Stewartby in Bedfordshire, capable of using household and business waste leftover after recycling as a fuel to generate heat and electricity.
The proposals include plans to develop and operate an Energy from Waste facility and post-treatment Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at the Rookery South Pit site.
The project also includes a new access and junction upgrade from Green Lane, Stewartby, extensive landscaping and ecological habitat creation, improvements to rights of way, an underground electricity grid connection and a visitor centre. The provision of a new footbridge over the Marston Vale railway line and improvements to the Green Line railway level crossing in Stewartby are also being considered.
The proposed facility – known as Rookery South Resource Recovery Facility – will convert on average 585,000 tonnes of residual waste per year into 65MWe of electricity, of which 55MWe would be exported to the national grid. That’s enough electricity to meet the needs of Bedford and the Marston Vale (about 82,500 homes). There are also excellent opportunities to supply surplus heat to nearby developments such as NIRAH and Center Parcs.
Covanta believes that developing a facility capable of handling both household and business waste from Bedfordshire and Luton (primarily) and other nearby areas will maximise environmental and economic benefits of scale and offer a value for money solution to the taxpayer. To achieve even greater environmental benefits, Covanta is proposing the Materials Recovery Facility to recover valuable metals and secondary aggregate post treatment in the EfW facility.
Overall the facility will recover value from approximately 96% of the waste it treats while simultaneously reducing reliance on costly unsustainable landfill and helping Bedfordshire to meet its recovery and renewable energy targets.
As the facility is principally a power station generating over 65MW of electricity per year, the application will be decided by the new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) in consultation with regulatory authorities, the local councils and the local community.
Integrating the proposed facility into the wider Marston Vale landscape and community through careful design and consultation is a key objective and Covanta has already hosted extensive local consultation and information events in 2009 and is continuing to keep local people informed through five more exhibitions in March 2010. This new round of consultation builds on the work Covanta has already done in explaining its proposals and listening to the views it has received. Covanta has also established a Community Liaison Panel to provide local people with a chance to find out about the Project's progress and to feedback on the issues most important to the local community.
Please check back regularly for updates and more information as the Project progresses.
Email: RookerySouth@covantaenergy.co.uk
Click here to view an artist's impression of the proposed facility.