It is a fight people have been waiting for, for nearly four years. Yesterday the first salvos were fired in a battle over plans for a giant incinerator in Belvedere. Chief Reporter LINDA PIPER outlines the issues and the major players in the inquiry … THIS is the third battle by residents to prevent a 22-hectare riverfront site in Norman Road from becoming home to a waste-to-energy incinerator burning hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish from London and possibly beyond.

Riverside Resource Recovery Ltd (RRRL) has applied to generate 72mw of electricity by burning up to a maximum of more than 800,000 tonnes of rubbish a year, from all over London.

Campaigners against the incinerator fear it will increase air pollution across the south east region.

The inquiry, being held by the Department of Trade and Industry, in the Marriot Hotel, in Bexleyheath Broadway, started yesterday and should run until October.

Hearing the evidence, conducting the inquiry and making the final decision will be Keith Smith, an experienced and highly-qualified DTI inspector.

On behalf of the DTI, he will assess the benefits and drawbacks of generating that amount of electricity for the National Grid using a waste-to-energy incinerator. Mr Smith recently turned down proposals for an incinerator in Hull after a public inquiry.

Inquiry sessions, which are open to the public, will begin at 10am each day.

In addition there will be two evening sessions on July 24 and August 14. The times and venues are still to be fixed.

The inquiry is not scheduled to sit on July 25, August 14, 15 and 18 to 29.

The hearings will be divided by subject matter. Details of the application, technology, need, best practical environmental option, residual waste and waste/planning policy will be covered in sessions until July 24.

Air quality, noise, health effects and possible risks, landscape, ecology, jetty/river/flood defence issues will be debated from July 29 to August 13.

Sessions from September 2 to 10 will deal with highways/transport, design and risk/perception.

Between September 11 and 26, third parties such as other local authorities, landowners, interest groups and individuals will give their evidence.

Between September 30 and October 3, the inspector will hear mitigating measures, suggested planning conditions and obligations and closing submissions.

......... OPPOSED .........

APART from Bexley Council, the main opposition to the incinerator will come from BADAIR (Bexley And District Against Incineration Risk), the umbrella group for the anti-incinerator protests It was founded in 1995 to fight the Cory/PowerGen application. Incorporated in BADAIR is BETTER (Bexley, Erith and Thamesmead Tackle Environmental Ruin). This was Bexley’s first anti-incinerator pressure group, which successfully fought against the original Cory application in 1991.

Other opponents include, London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone, London Assembly, John Austin MP, Axa and Sun Life Assurance and a host of community groups.

Barrister Neil King QC is leading the case against the incinerator on behalf of Bexley Council.

......... IN FAVOUR .........

THE driving force behind the plan is London-based Cory Environmental, now a subsidiary of multi-national company Exel.

Cory, whose tug and barge fleet on the Thames transports 15 per cent of London’s rubbish, originally bought the Norman Road site and applied in 1991 to build a 1m tonne incinerator there, the largest in Europe.

Following a seven-week public inquiry in 1992, the proposal was refused by the Department for Trade and Industry in 1994.

In 1995, Cory teamed up with energy company PowerGen and made another application to build a giant incinerator on the site. The application drew one of the largest number of objections ever received by the DTI and PowerGen eventually pulled out of the project. The application was withdrawn in 1997.

In 1999 Cory joined forces with Energy Power Resources, specialising in renewable energy projects. They created Riverside Resource Recovery Ltd which lodged the latest application.

Energy Power Resources was founded in 1994, largely with venture capital, and aims to become the UK’s largest generator of renewable energy. Its majority shareholder is Electra Partners, a private equity specialist company.

The company currently runs a power station in Fife, Scotland, burning chicken litter; a straw-burning power station in Ely, Cambridgeshire and two wind farms in Yorkshire.

Barrister Simon Pickles is conducting the case for RRRL.