Agenda item

DECISION

That the Assistant Director Regulation be delegated, in consultation with the Leader and Portfolio Holders for Economic Development, Planning and Environment, to finalise the Council’s submission in response to the BAEF Phase 4 consultation.

Portfolio Holder and Officer

YS/NW/

CA

REASON FOR DECISION

Councillor Yvonne Stevens introduced a report, which set out the details of the Phase 4 consultation relating to the Boston Alternative Energy Facility proposals.  The Council was a consultee in the planning process to determine if the proposed Boston Alternative Energy Facility should be approved. As a National Significant Infrastructure Project, the application would be determined by the Secretary of State following a Planning Inquiry headed up by a Planning Inspector.

The BAEF proposal was a significant in scale, state-of-the-art power-generation plant, which the developers presented as leading the way in land-based renewable power in the UK. The facility would generate 102MW of renewable energy from the thermal processing of refuse derived fuel (RDF), of which 80MW will be exported to the National Grid.

This development created the potential for significant economic development opportunities linked to the supply chain to support the plant and potential end users of the ancillary products produced during the thermal processing of waste. In addition, the proposals created opportunities for the Council to work with the County Council through the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership to consider alternative ways to manage waste in the county. However, there were many planning and environmental health factors to consider first, having regard to the nature of the proposals.

In July 2019, Cabinet received a report concerning proposals for BAEF as Phase 3 of the statutory formal consultation on the development and the Preliminary Environmental Impact Report. Cabinet agreed a recommendation to delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader and Portfolio Holders for Economic Development, Planning and Environment, to finalise the consultation submission, taking into account the feedback recorded at Environment and Performance Committee meeting and Cabinet.

Since the Phase 3 consultation was concluded in August last year, BAEF had made some fundamental design changes to the proposed project following a project review and ongoing iterative design work, the feedback received during earlier consultations, and input from specialist bodies. Due to the nature of these changes, BAEF had determined that an additional round of public consultation (Phase 4) was appropriate.

This report set out the details of the BAEF proposal as they stood for Phase 4 consultation, whilst the appendices set out in more detail the context behind the changes and highlighted the differences between the Phase 3 proposal and the Phase 4 proposal. The current Phase 4 consultation was concerned only with the changes made to the proposal since the Phase 3 consultation concluded last year. This and all prior consultation rounds were a precursor to the formal submission of the proposal for consideration through the NSIP regime, at which stage the Council would be formally invited to provide comments to the Inspector and take part in the examination process.

The Facility remains an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility, although the technology used to convert waste to energy had switched from gasification to traditional EfW thermal technology. BAEF also report that the changes were anticipated to have only minor and net positive effects, resulting in an overall reduction in potential negative impacts from the development.

The Borough Council continued to liaise with the agent of the applicant to seek further clarification and understanding of the proposals, whilst officers continued to work with the County Council and other stakeholders to consider the impact of the proposed development balanced with opportunity that the scheme would bring to the Borough.

Members of the Environment and Performance Committee had debated the proposals in-depth the previous night and recommended that Cabinet resolved to delegate to the Assistant Director - Regulation, in consultation with the Leader and Portfolio Holders for Economic Development, Planning and Environment, to finalise the Council’s submission in response to the Phase 4 consultation.

OTHER OPTIONS OR ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED

None.

RECORD OF ANY CONFLICT OF INTEREST

None.

RECORD OF ANY DISPENSATION GRANTED

None.