City council loses High Court bid to block waste plant

Bristol City Council has failed in a High Court challenge to the grant of planning permission to a materials recycling facility and an energy from waste plant in Avonmouth.

The Avonmouth Resource Recovery Centre, which is being developed by Viridor, is expected to recover up to 150,000 tonnes of recyclable resources a year.

The energy from waste plant has also been designed to treat up to 350,000 tonnes of residual waste a year. It will supply 30MW of power to the National Grid.

The city council’s development panel turned the scheme down in June 2010. However, Viridor later succeeded in obtaining government approval for the project.

Bristol is understood to have based its challenge in the High Court on three grounds:

• The scope of its environmental impact assessment
• The planning policy for the area
• The award of costs against the council resulting from the inquiry.

Viridor’s Head of Planning and Permitting, Ian John, said: “We are pleased that the challenge was dismissed on all three counts. We will continue to work on the submissions required by the planning permission so we can commence work on site as soon as possible and deliver this much-needed infrastructure project.”

Councillor Anthony Negus told the BBC that he "felt the decision was wrong" and that the cost of the appeal was about £20,000.