As I write this shortly after Bonfire Night, the clocks have gone back; it is dark as I leave the office after work and already the Christmas catalogues are dropping through the door. Fortunately, it has been unseasonably warm, so the central heating has only been needed intermittently – a real bonus in these times of rapidly rising energy prices.

And energy generation from waste is one of the issues that have been concerning your Parish Council over recent months, as the national drive to find alternative sources of energy starts to have a local impact.

It is clear that tighter environmental standards and a lack of suitable landfill sites mean that we can no longer continue to just bury our rubbish – local authorities are being charged a landfill tax for rubbish disposed of in this way and so are under pressure to find alternative methods of disposal to ensure they get the best value for their ratepayers.

At the same time, the UK is committed to increasing the proportion of energy it generates from renewable and non-fossil fuel sources – it has a target of 20% “green” energy by 2020. So you can understand why projects that generate power from waste are attractive to local authorities, since they can both help reduce the volume of expensive waste going to landfill, while at the same time helping to increase the amount of power generated from renewable sources.

The problem is that in future these types of facility are likely to be smaller and more local than the massive power stations and landfill sites that we have been used to in the past, and so are going to affect more people. Your Parish Council is aware of proposals for two such projects that could have an impact on local residents – an incinerator generating electricity from rubbish at New Barnfield, between Hatfield and Welham Green, and an anaerobic digestion plant at Coursers Road.

While the incinerator is not in Colney Heath Parish, the scale of the facility is likely to have an impact on local traffic movements. No formal planning application has yet been made, but the project is supported by Hertfordshire County Council, which has contracted Veolia Environmental Services to build and operate the plant, and so the application is likely to be viewed favourably.

The proposals currently being consulted on envisage a facility that can deal with up to 380,000 tonnes of “black bin” rubbish per year (over 1,000 tonnes a day) which Veolia says will require 180 lorry movements daily, or 15 per hour assuming 12 hour days.

The raw waste from kerbside collections would be sorted at the incinerator site, with the recyclable and compostable elements removed (presumably meaning more vehicle movements). This would leave around 7% “residual waste” – material with no other value that would otherwise be sent to landfill – which would be incinerated at the site. After burning, there would be two grades of ash – an inert “bottom ash” that can be used in the construction industry, plus a highly toxic “fly ash” that is placed in sealed bags and buried in deep pits in Cheshire. Veolia claims that harmful exhaust gases will be “scrubbed” in a three stage process as they progress through the 75 metre high chimney to satisfy the Health Protection Agency’s standards. As the exhaust leaves the burners, they will drive an electricity generator, making enough power to service 5,000 houses, says Veolia, although it is not clear whether this will benefit local residents. The whole site is under cover, and its operation would be monitored by the Environment Agency.

More local is the project to build an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Coursers Farm in Colney Heath. This process uses a sealed fermentation vessel where microbes ferment organic waste materials – in this case food waste – to produce methane, which can either be used directly as a gas energy source or to generate electricity, and a “digestate” by-product for use as an organic fertiliser for farmers to spread on their land. The presentation to the Parish Council envisaged an intake of up to 30,000 tonnes per year. Again, no formal planning application has yet been made in this case, but it is clear that servicing the intake and removing waste products would require a significant increase in vehicle movements to deliver material to the site and remove the residue.

These are tricky issues. On the one hand, everyone wants their rubbish to simply disappear each week, while modern life without electricity at the flick of a switch is almost unthinkable. And yet we have to find alternatives to landfill, while concern over energy security means that local electricity generation must increasingly help to supply the power we all take for granted, whether it is solar panels on our houses or larger agricultural schemes on our farms. (In Germany there are already over 6,000 on-farm AD plants). But at the same time, people are understandably concerned about their quality of life, especially when it comes to a potential increase in lorry traffic and air pollution.

The decisions on these projects, if and when the applications are submitted, will be taken at district or county level, although the Parish Council will be making its view known in the planning consultation, so please let your councillors know your opinions on these matters.

Veolia’s proposals can be viewed via the www.veoliaenvironmentalservices.co.uk/Documents/Publications/Hertfordshire/Publications
/Veolia_CommunityUpdate2_ElectronicBookletVersion.pdf webpage, while the Hatfield against Incineration website – http://www.hatfield-anti-incineration.co.uk/ – offers an alternative view.

The Chronicle’s editor, Dave Rodway successfully completed his ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro in late October – all 5,895m of it – and is back to tell the story. It is not too late to support his magnificent effort on behalf of the Parkinson’s UK charity – the www.justgiving.com/drodway webpage is still open for donations.

And finally, on behalf of the Parish Council, and the Parish Office, can I wish everybody a very happy and peaceful Christmas and all the best for 2012.  

Jamie Day
Colney Heath Parish Council

THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE CHRONICLE 146 – WINTER EDITION – PUBLISHED IN DECEMBER 2011