WORK has started on a controversial waste incinerator site at Rivenhall.

Construction vehicles have started to move more than 1.4 million cubic metres of soil next to a former airfield.

Campaigners spent years fighting Indaver's proposals for the plant, but the company finally got the go-ahead.

The current work will pave the way for the construction of the production buildings, which is due to commence in early 2022.

It is the first phase of a four and a half year construction programme.

The integrated waste management facility is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2025.

The development is being built in the footprint of an existing quarry, next to the abandoned Rivenhall Airfield.

The excavation work is preparing the site for an access road and is expected to take up to a year.

The company says the soil will be used to restore other parts of the quarry and the concrete from on-site structures is being recycled and used on site.

Indaver spokesman Gareth Jones said: “Since taking over the site in January, we have been working towards the commencement of the site development works.

"It’s exciting to see all of the activity now taking place across the site.”

Campaigners lost their fight to block the incinerator in the High Court last year.

No Essex Incinerator Limited had tried to overturn the Environment Agency’s decision to approve a permit for the waste plant, which will be built with a 35-metre chimney stack.

The group had hoped to alter the decision through a judicial review, but a two-day hearing at the High Court saw the bid thrown out.

The Environment Agency had previously refused to give a permit to Gent Fairhead and Co to build the waste plant with a 35-metre chimney.

But they reversed the decision after stating incinerator operators Indaver would be using the “best possible emissions technology”.

No Essex Incinerator claimed the emissions from the site would be the equivalent to 120,000 cars each travelling 8,000 miles a year around Braintree.