Mallusk incinerator application expected in ‘few weeks’

arc21 - the umbrella waste management group for Newtownabbey and 10 other local councils - is pushing ahead with plans to construct a massive incinerator near Mallusk.
By The Newsroom
Published 15th Jan 2014, 10:27 BST
Ricky Burnett of arc21 and Ian Smith from the Becon Consortium check out the plans for the Hightown Quarry site. INNT 11-037-FPRicky Burnett of arc21 and Ian Smith from the Becon Consortium check out the plans for the Hightown Quarry site. INNT 11-037-FP
Ricky Burnett of arc21 and Ian Smith from the Becon Consortium check out the plans for the Hightown Quarry site. INNT 11-037-FP

Opponents of the controversial scheme had hoped that last week’s announcement by the Environment Minister granting Bombardier Aerospace permission to build an £85 million gasification power plant at its Belfast factory would negate the need for an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility at Hightown Quarry.

However, a spokesman for the Becon Consortium - the company working with arc21 on the Hightown project - has stressed that Bombardier’s plant, which will use thousands of tonnes of Refuse Derived Fuel to produce electricity and heat, has “nothing whatsoever to do with the municipal black bin waste needs within the arc21 area”. And he revealed that a formal planning application for the £240 million Hightown project could be submitted “within the next few weeks.”

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The No Arc21 lobby group, which is campaigning against the incinerator, has raised a variety of environmental and health fears about the project.

Representatives from the group are due to highlight those concerns during a meeting with the Environment Minister next week.

• Read more in this week’s Times...

Related topics:NewtownabbeyBelfast