EXASPERATED residents have been dealt another blow as the Environment Agency moves one step closer to approving a contentious incinerator permit.

In February last year Essex County Council approved Gent Fairhead’s revised plans to build a facility - including a heat and power plant, a recycling plant, an anaerobic digester, a mechanical biological treatment plant, a pulp plant and a waste water treatment centre - at Rivenhall Airfield.

The plans have been strongly criticised by residents in 14 parishes who formed the campaign group Parishes Against Incinerator (PAIN).

But in December the Environment Agency (EA) rejected the permit application to burn waste on the grounds that the applicant did not demonstrate the use of best available practices to reduce emissions and the impact on the environment.

The EA has now published a draft decision saying it is minded to approve the application after Gent Fairhead submitted a fresh application and screening and scoping request to Essex County Council regarding a proposed 20 metre increase in the height of the chimney stack.

Witham MP Priti Patel has now called on the public to respond to the latest consultation.

She said: "Residents across this part of Essex will be disappointed by the initial views of the Environment Agency.

"There are serious local concerns about this site and further scrutiny is now required of the proposals.

"I would encourage residents to submit responses to the current round of consultant to let the Environment Agency know how they feel.

"I will continue to support local residents and campaigners opposed to the incinerator."

Braintree and Witham Times:

The incinerator would be surrounded in reflective cladding.

Another round of public consultation now follows before a final decision will be reached and the site still needs planning permission to increase the size of stack.

Nick Unsworth from PAIN and NO Essex Incinerator said: "Naturally we had hoped that that the EA would refuse this for a second time based on their original guidance that ‘a stack of between 70 and 130m was more in keeping with a plant of this size’.

"We will be fully reviewing all the documentation provided to understand how the apparent misleading best available technology has been utilised with such a low stack.

"Furthermore, and as Essex does not produce enough waste to fuel the incinerator, we will continue to fight to stop our county becoming skyfill, landfill in the sky, for the rest of the country's waste and challenge all aspects of this development right into the courts if we need to."

To comment on the consultation visit bit.ly/2sKT6Vn before July 17.