Peel has consulted widely during the on-going development and planning process, this has included consulting the local community together with all statutory organisations. We believe it is essential to engage with local public in any development and therefore we have held a series presentations and meetings with local parish councils at Ince, Elton and Helsby. Public exhibitions were also held at these villages in October 2005 and these events allowed the public to express their views and ask questions directly to the development team.

A community newsletter ‘Eco-Park News’ and questionnaire were distributed at the exhibitions, and we have assessed the responses from the questionnaires and these exhibitions to further understand the concerns of the public.

Whilst the responses from the questionnaire revealed that the vast majority of people supported the idea of maximising the amount of waste recycled, and the principle of recovering energy from waste rather than landfilling waste, a number of issues have been highlighted as causing particular concern for the public.

These concerns mostly concentrated on the following issues:

• Air Quality/Emissions and Health
• Traffic and Noise
• Why Ince?
• Effect on the surrounding environment

Air Quality and Emissions

Gaseous emissions released from the RDF power plant will be subject to continuous monitoring to ensure that they meet the levels and requirements set by the Authorities. The plant will be compliant with the Waste Incineration Directive (WID) and will need a Polution Prevention and Control (PPC) permit. The development will not be able to get consent or a PPC Permit if there was any danger of causing detrimental impacts to the local community.

As part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) extensive air quality assessments and modelling have been undertaken. Computers have been used to predict and model the worst case scenario on ground level pollutants. Weather conditions from the past three years combined with the effect of local topography have been used predict the levels of various pollutants in different localities surrounding the development.

The results and findings of this work has been included in the Environmental Statement and the relevant chapters are available to download here.

Link to Press Release

Traffic and Noise

Traffic

It is a fundamental feature of the Resource Recovery Park to make the best use of the available multi-modal transport infrastructure, enabling the transportation of freight and goods in a sustainable manner on road, rail or water.

Upgrading and extending of the canal berth and rail head, together with improvements to Kemira Road will allow full utilisation of the available transport infrastructure on the site.

Whilst we will encourage businesses to use the water and rail facilities there will be movement of freight and goods on the road network. Road access from M56 J14 will be via the A5117, Pool Lane and then Kemira Road. The site is also accessible from M53 J10. No vehicular movements will therefore be through the villages of Ince and Elton.

A full traffic assessment has been carried out as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the results of which are contained in the relevant chapters of the Environmental Statement available to view here.

Noise

The Resource Recovery Park overall design incorporates acoustic mitigation measures which will limit the effect of noise produced by the operations carried out within the RRP. Site machinery and plant will be designed and will be operated in such a way to ensure that noise levels do not exceed acceptable levels set by the Authorities.

A full noise assessment has been carried out as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the findings and details of the proposed mitigation measures are available in the relevant chapters of the Environmental Statement available to view here.

Why choose Ince Marshes for this development?

The site at Ince Marshes has been chosen after undertaking a substantial site selection process, which involved assessing over 98 different sites in the region. Ince Marshes has been identified as being suitable for this development as it has:

1. Sufficient land available and is situated in the heart of the Mersey Belt.
2. Direct access to the national rail network, and has direct access to a deep water berth allowing transportation of freight and goods on international and short sea shipping routes, as well as the inland waterway network.
3. Access to the national strategic motorway network with junction 14 M56 and junction 10 of the M53.
4. Close proximity to complimentary business activities and the land is allocated for industrial use.

The full assessment of alternative sites within the region included brownfield sites, as well as other allocated industrial sites. We do not believe there is a viable alternative to Ince Marshes, most sites do not have the potential for rail or shipping links, they are too small, or they are being used for other uses.