Councillors and MP plan to object to Royton incinerator the height of 12 double-decker buses

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon

An Oldham MP, and several Oldham councillors plan to object to plans for an incinerator in Royton.

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon, Councillors Clint Phythian & Hannah Roberts of Royton North and Councillors Marie Bashforth, Steven Bashforth and Amanda Chadderton of Royton South say they plan to object to the Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) on Mossdown Road once the consultation period of the planning application begins.
 
The plans for the 55m tall facility are due to be submitted to Oldham Council’s planning department any day now, but Royton’s representatives have voiced their concerns in advance.
 
Jim McMahon said, “After meeting with the developers, studying the material they have produced in support of the planning application, and looking at the application itself, I cannot support the proposals. Previous attempts to build a similar facility on the same site have been refused by planners at Oldham Council and I’ll be urging them to refuse this one too.”
 
“The current plans indicate the facility will be as tall as 12 double-decker buses and plans that were previously submitted and refused were for facilities one-fifth of the size. The visual impact that this would have on the area – and the wider borough once the chimney stack and exhaust gases are factored in cannot be overstated.”
 
“Likewise, I remain unconvinced that the traffic impact the facility will have on the surrounding roads has been considered in the right way. And given the disruption and impact the site would have only providing forty jobs once up and running does not even begin to mitigate against that”
 
Cllr Amanda Chadderton, Councillor for Royton South, said “The size of this facility makes it impossible for us to do anything but strongly oppose it, compared to the surrounding buildings it will be mammoth.”
 
“We all have real genuine concerns that not enough consideration has been given to the number of heavy-goods vehicles that would be coming in and out of the site.”
 
“With Broadbent Moss earmarked for development too, I can’t foresee a situation where this doesn’t massively impact the likelihood of people wanting to live there.”
 
Cllr Hannah Roberts, Councillor for Royton North said, “The proposed building is too big and in the wrong place. It would dominate the Beal Valley and surrounding homes as well as increasing traffic in the local area.”
 
“These new proposals are even more unacceptable than the previous planning application which was refused, and I support the call to turn down this new application when it is considered”
 
A spokesperson from the project team for the proposed Mossdown Road ERF said: “We are fully committed to supporting Oldham to reduce the environmental impact of its waste.

“Currently the majority of the waste collected from businesses is sent many miles away with the associated road miles – even as far as Europe.

“The proposed site for our £150m state-of-the-art energy recovery facility is currently home to illegally dumped waste and this will require a multi-million pound remediation project before we start work.

“Our proposals would safely transform non-recyclable waste already coming to the Royton area to generate low carbon energy and heating for the local area.

“At this time of building back better, this project could provide c. £12m local supply chain benefit, 350 jobs during construction and 40 highly skilled roles once we enter operation. We acknowledge the concern locally and following our public consultation in December, we will share further information with the community ahead of our submission.”

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