Planning Application Submitted for Millerhill Waste Treatment Facilities

17 March 2011

Zero Waste: Edinburgh and Midlothian has submitted an application for planning permission in principle to Midlothian Council to build food and residual waste treatment facilities. The application is for a 20.3 hectare disused brownfield site which lies in-between operational rail marshalling yards and the disused Monktonhall coal mine near Millerhill in Midlothian.
 
The proposed facilities would mainly treat residual household waste and separately collected food waste from both Council areas. The application is for a development which could consist of the following;
 
- An Anaerobic Digestion facility (AD) with a capacity of up to 30,000 tonnes per year
- A Mechanical Biological Treatment facility (MBT) with a capacity of up to 200,000 tonnes per year
- An Energy from Waste facility (EfW) with a capacity of up to 100,000 tonnes per year
 
Other elements include a Visitor Centre, where school and community groups could attend for educational visits and a materials recovery facility where residual waste will be sorted before being treated.
 
Public consultation on the proposals took place between November 2009 and November 2010. A series of events were held for the public to learn about the proposals and ask any questions in relation to them. More than 150 people attended these events, many providing feedback to the project team. This information has been included as part of the planning application submission for planners to consider.
 
Project Director, Gordon Pollock, said, "We're very pleased to be able to submit this planning application. We've carried out a lot of work to make sure this is the best place to build and having worked closely with the community and considered the points they raised, we feel that we can really make this site work as a location for Zero Waste facilities. We look forward to receiving a positive decision on the application in the coming months."
 
For anyone wishing to view the proposals or comment on them please visit www.midlothian.gov.uk
 
 
ENDS
 
Notes to editors:
 
Please note that formal comments on the application can only be made to Midlothian Council's Development Management team, comments made to the Zero Waste team during this time do not constitute formal submissions.
 
Whilst both Councils continue year on year to increase their recycling rates, a treatment facility is required to deal with the residual municipal waste. Residual municipal waste is the household and commercial waste, collected by Councils, which is left over after all reasonable efforts have been made to reduce, reuse, recycle or compost it.