Council Leader requests DEFRA intervention regarding Portland incinerator

Cllr. Nick Ireland, Leader of Dorset Council and Cabinet Member for Climate, Performance and Safeguarding, has written to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

He has requested the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) intervene following the government's decision to grant planning permission for the proposed incinerator in Portland.

The letter, addressed to Rt Hon Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Emma Hardy MP, Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Water and Flooding), reads as follows:

"Dear Secretary of State and Under-Secretary of State,

We are very pleased to see your department pushing further on the nation’s environmental ambitions, and Dorset is very keen to support that. We are proud to be pushing down residual waste as England’s number one unitary authority for recycling; and to be taking the ambitious step to expedite our local net zero targets.

We therefore feel deep disappointment at the decision by government to grant planning permission for the proposed incinerator in Portland. The strength of local opposition is striking, and there is a strong feeling that government has pushed this through without consideration of the consequences for the residents of Dorset.

We welcome the Environment Agency’s decision to reopen the consultation on the proposed incinerators application for a permit to operate. We hope that it will now carefully consider our resident’s concerns about the impacts on the local community.

However, we are concerned that any ensuing decision on whether to grant a permit may be premature in view of Defra’s ongoing work to consider and consult on its forthcoming Residual Waste Infrastructure Capacity Note. In providing important evidence on the role of waste incineration in the management of residual wastes, this note should crucially inform decision-making on any outstanding permits.

I therefore call upon you to issue a Ministerial Direction of the Environment Agency to temporarily pause the determination of environmental permits for this facility. Such a pause can be made without prejudice to the decision on whether to grant or refuse the permit; but it would avoid the risk that a decision is made in haste and in ignorance of the evidence gathered by Defra’s own review.

A similar such decision was taken in April by the previous Secretary of State. Similarly, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has twice delayed planning decisions on a proposal in North Lincolnshire to enable time for consideration and consultation on the note.

We look forward to Defra’s work on residual waste with great anticipation, and hope that your work to gather evidence will be fully considered in future permitting decisions.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Ireland

Leader, Dorset Council"