Fight of 20 years against incinerator ends in minutes

Campaigners said their "20-year fight was over in 20 minutes" after plans were scrapped for a waste incinerator which has cost the taxpayer £147m and has never been used.

Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council, which jointly own the Sinfin waste treatment centre, said getting rid of the site would "protect the interests of council taxpayers".

Simon Bacon, former chair of a campaign group against the project, said the near £150m spend was "money that could have been used in all the projects across the city and the county".

The centre in Derby failed initial testing in 2017, and talks earlier this year were unable to find anyone to take on management of the project.

Campaigners began the protest group Sinfin Spondon All Against Incineration (SSAIN) soon after plans were first mooted in 2006.

Both councils' cabinets agreed to decommission and dispose of the site on Wednesday.

"I thought it was never going to happen - every time you thought that we'd won, they'd just restart the project," Bacon said.

"For it to finally be put to bed in the cabinet chamber, it leaves you almost speechless.

"It's like it's so much of your life that you've put into the campaign and finally we've had the result that we were looking for."

The plant was expected to divert 190,000 tonnes of waste from landfill each year by heat-treating rubbish to produce gas and generate enough electricity to power about 14,000 homes.

However, the facility was mothballed in 2019 and, in 2023, Derby City and Derbyshire County councils agreed a £93.5m settlement with the administrators of the company behind the project.

Attempts to revive the site later hit another obstacle when Derbyshire County Council issued Derby City Council with a bill for £93.9m plus VAT in January 2024 to recover its share of costs, a demand that was disputed by the Labour-run authority.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the disagreement was subsequently resolved.

Bacon said the decision was in part "bittersweet" as a number of campaigners who started out in 2006, died before seeing their work come to fruition.

He added residents living close by were severely impacted by the site.

"It was terrible for local residents," he said. "Houses were infested with flies and we were constantly being told that it wasn't the facility.

"But as soon as the facility was shut and was cleaned, the flies all disappeared so we all knew where it was coming from, but people really struggled and suffered through.

"The amount of money that the council taxpayers of Derby and Derbyshire have had to pay - around £150m - that's money that we can't get back, money that could have been used in all the projects across the city and the county."

Bacon said that after the decision he could "relax now", adding that the councils "should have just listened to us from the start".

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