3:30pm Thursday 10th January 2008
By Reg Little
PLANS have been submitted to build a £5m food waste treatment centre on Green Belt land near Yarnton.
Kitchen waste and green waste from homes across the county could be sent to the recycling plant, if the scheme is given the go-ahead by Oxfordshire County Council.
And it could herald the return of weekly food waste collections to Oxford, where the introduction of fortnightly rubbish collections sparked complaints about vermin and rotting rubbish.
The scheme has been submitted by Worton Farm Ltd, the owner of the land, and the Chipping Norton-based recycling company Agrivert.
The seven-acre site on land between Yarnton and Cassington is close to the A40. The plan is to process between 37,000 and 49,000 tonnes of kitchen and green waste a year.
The county council's planning committee is being recommended to approve the scheme next week by officers, even though the county council has yet to announce the companies being shortlisted to build the giant recycling facility.
Oxfordshire invited tenders in November from companies to build one or more plants to process food and kitchen waste, which it wants to see running within 18 months.
Harry Waters, a director of Agrivert, said it had decided to submit an early planning application to give the council confidence in its proposal.
He said: "We think we have a strong case. The planning process can set back the delivery of a facility like this by years. By going for planning permission now, we hope to remove some of the risk for the county council."
Kitchen and garden waste would be composted in about 20 giant tunnels, using a sealed, in-vessel composting system. The company already runs an in-vessel plant in London, which recycles 30,000 tonnes of food and green waste a year.
Michael Gibbard, chairman of Yarnton Parish Council and Cherwell District Council's executive member for planning and housing, called for an environment impact assessment.
He said: "There's extreme concern, not least because for some years we have experienced a low-key composting operation and have been plagued by smells and dust. At Yarnton we are downwind of this site."
A food treatment centre is seen as key to a county strategy to reduce waste sent to landfill. About 28 per cent of household waste is thought to be food.
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