Power station plan for green belt land (From Echo)

Power station plan for green belt land

1:40pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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NEW plans have been revealed for a power station which would produce enough electricity for 90,000 homes.

KTI Energy wants to build a power station at Friern Manor Farm, Dunton, off the A127, on the district’s green belt.

Two previous sites – off Gardiners Lane, Crays Hill, and near the Stevenson’s boot sale site, Nevendon, near Wickford – were scrapped after Echo stories last year highlighted a lack of support from the public and council.

Yet KTI bosses are now preparing an application to the Government’s Infrastructure Planning Commission for the plant, on land owned by farmer Barrie Stone, who is favour of the project.

A draft application sent to the Echo by the firm outlines how it would be made up of three boilers with air pollution control systems, to burn refuse derived fuel – a by-product of anaerobic digestors, such as the one planned by Essex County Council at Courtauld Road, Basildon.

It would also burn 240,000 tonnes of commercial wood, paper and cardboard waste a year.

KTI director Dr Bill Temple Pediani, 76, said burning the fuel creates the electricity to power local industrial premises.

The plant would need a new roundabout and access road from Lower Dunton Road and would include a visitor centre.

Mr Stone, 59, said there were currently three possible locations on his farmland, and he is backing the scheme.

He said: “I support a sustainable development with local jobs for local people.”

However, Malcolm Buckley, the Basildon councillor responsible for the environment, said there would still be no backing from Basildon Council for such a facility on green belt.

He said: “It’s certainly in the wrong location. If KTI came forward with land in an industrial area then there might be a serious conversation to be had.”

Dr Temple Pediani said he is due to meet with waste authority Essex County Council over the proposals and hinted the power station could form part of Basildon Council’s plans for a business corridor along the A127.